https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-google-tries-to
In an astonishing move, Google cut a check to the U.S. government over an antitrust case, in the hopes of avoiding a jury trial. And it argues such jury trials are unconstitutional.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15750986
Seen a concerningly large amount of companies calling things they don't like "unconstitutional" lately.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
This week, liquor monopolist David Trone lost a Democratic primary despite spending $60 million, the Supreme Court overwhelmingly ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional, and Google actually offered money to the Antitrust Division to try and avoid having a case go to a jury.
They just cut a check for all proposed harms, tripled it in accordance with the Sherman Act’s treble damages charge, and claimed that the point is moot.
Google hired a fancy medieval scholar, a guy at a Scottish university named Professor John Hudson, to explain how the founders were libertarians who thought the public was dumb.
I’ve watched a bunch of antitrust trials, and it’s clear that judges have too much power, and that having normal people involved would be a significant improvement.
As Lee Hepner put it, “If it wasn’t clear already, Google is acknowledging that actual monetary damages, even if trebled, are an insufficient deterrent for a trillion dollar entity to illegally maintain a monopoly.”
The judge in the case, Leonie Brinkema, has been pretty annoyed at Google, so it’s not a promising outcome if they go with a bench trial.
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