L.A. Times: 48 states are probing Google on antitrust grounds. Why isn’t California?
L.A. Times: 48 states are probing Google on antitrust grounds. Why isn’t California?

The L.A. Times' Suhauna Hussain reports on the announcement that 50 attorneys general from 48 states and two U.S. territories have launched a probe into Google's monopolistic power and asks Open Markets Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan to weigh in. “I think the states have sort of lost their patience” with the federal government, Vaheesan told her. “They’ve realized the administration might make some noises, but aren’t expecting any meaningful action. They believe they have to act or nobody will act against Facebook or Google.”

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ClippingsOpen MarketsSeptember 2019, 2019, Sandeep Vaheesan, Google, Competition Law & Philosophy
Vox: A $5 billion fine won’t fix Facebook. Here’s what would.
Vox: A $5 billion fine won’t fix Facebook. Here’s what would.

We can do better than fine companies that break the law, writes Vox's Emily Stewart. She speaks to Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard about the recent developments with Facebook. “As long as it is profitable to break the law, corporations, which are profit-maximizing entities by design, will continue to break the law,” says Hubbard. “You actually need to go harder on the big guys, and it’s not a question of lack of authority, it’s a lack of political will.”

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ClippingsOpen MarketsSeptember 2019, 2019, Facebook
The Verge: Google under antitrust investigation by 50 attorneys general
The Verge: Google under antitrust investigation by 50 attorneys general

The Verge reports that 50 attorneys general from US states and territories signed onto an antitrust investigation into Google, placing even more pressure on the major tech firm that is already facing intense scrutiny over its market dominance from the government. They cite Open Markets' Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard's statement on the news: “We haven’t seen a major monopolization case against a tech giant since Microsoft was sued in 1998. Today’s announcement marks the start of a new era.”

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ClippingsOpen MarketsSeptember 2019, 2019, Google
The great break-up of Big Tech is finally beginning
The great break-up of Big Tech is finally beginning

Open Markets Senior Fellow Matt Stoller published a piece on The Guardian on the heels of news that U.S. state attorneys general are launching a bipartisan investigation into Facebook and Google. “These corporations have become too powerful to be contained by democratic societies,” he writes. “We must work through our government to break them up and regulate our information commons, or they will end up becoming our government and choosing what we see and know about the world around us.”

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Op-EdsOpen Markets2019, September 2019, Amazon, Google, Facebook
Open Markets Applauds State Attorneys General Historic Bipartisan Investigation into Google
Open Markets Applauds State Attorneys General Historic Bipartisan Investigation into Google

“We applaud the 50 attorneys general for taking this unprecedented stand against Big Tech by uniting to investigate Google’s destruction of competition in search and advertising,” said Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy in a statement. “Today’s announcement marks the start of a new era.”

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Press ReleasesOpen Markets2019, September 2019, Amazon, Facebook, Google
The Telegraph: Google could be this century's Standard Oil - will it be broken up?
The Telegraph: Google could be this century's Standard Oil - will it be broken up?

Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard speaks with The Telegraph about what a big tech probe by the U.S. attorneys general would mean and how the law could be leveraged against Google. Any upcoming probe into Google would also rely on the Sherman Act, and proving that the search giant has both “monopoly power and exclusionary conduct” says Hubbard.

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ClippingsOpen MarketsSeptember 2019, 2019, Google
WIRED: Fines Alone Aren't Enough to Slow Down Big Tech
WIRED: Fines Alone Aren't Enough to Slow Down Big Tech

The FTC could do more to punish companies like Google and Facebook over privacy violations. But the bigger problem is that Congress continues to do nothing at all. "Often the problem with privacy issues is that the FTC's authority is limited, but here the FTC's authority under COPPA is ample," says Sally Hubbard, director of strategic enforcement at the nonprofit Open Markets Institute told WIRED.

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ClippingsOpen MarketsSeptember 2019, 2019, Google
POLITICO: Inside the media industry’s struggle to take on Silicon Valley
POLITICO: Inside the media industry’s struggle to take on Silicon Valley

POLITICO's Nancy Scola and Margaret Harding McGill report that U.S. news companies are using a playbook from Europe to challenge the online platforms they see as an existential threat. They speak to Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard who says "I think the bargaining power between any individual publisher and a tech platform is just too vast.”

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ClippingsOpen MarketsAugust 2019, 2019, Facebook, Google
Accommodating Capital and Policing Labor: Antitrust in the Two Gilded Ages
Accommodating Capital and Policing Labor: Antitrust in the Two Gilded Ages

Open Markets Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan published an article in the Maryland Law Review on how antitrust law protected capital and punished labor in the original Gilded Age and in the second Gilded Age in which we live. Although the specific doctrines and rules today are different than they were a century ago, antitrust is once again doing little to check corporate domination of markets and also preventing a significant fraction of the labor force from organizing.

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ArticlesOpen Markets2019, August 2019, Competition Law & Philosophy, Labor
Jalopnik: Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say
Jalopnik: Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say

Jalopnik reporters Dhruv Mehrotra and Aaron Gordon publish an investigation showing just how much money Uber and Lyft take from their drivers. They speak to Open Markets Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan who told them: “This is really fascinating and troubling,” Vaheesan went on to say the findings “support the argument that their business model is built on large scale labor exploitation.”

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ClippingsOpen MarketsAugust 2019, 2019, Labor