Antitrust Practices and Market Power
It is important to realize the reason that Microsoft was investigated for possibly violating antitrust laws at the turn of the millennium. The company had established something of a natural monopoly of the software market (which is distinct from a government monopoly), and was leveraging its considerable market power to systematically eliminate its competition. It is legal to establish a monopoly in any given industry; yet it is illegal to "use certain practices that have no commercial justification in an effort to further entrench the monopoly" (Hazlett et al., 2000, p. 46). Microsoft was not charged with price fixing, and instead was investigated due to activity such as its penchant for fostering exclusive contracts and for withholding its operating system from certain competitors (Hazlett et al., 2000, p. 46).
Microsoft was investigated specifically under the Sherman Antitrust Act, particularly the first two sections which state that restraining…...
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References
Haw, R. (2011). Amicus briefs and the Sherman Act: why antitrust needs a new deal. Texas Law Review. 89(6), 1247-1291.
Hazlett, T., Litan, R., Rockefeller, E. (2000). Legal and economic aspects of the Microsfot case: antitrust in the information age. Business Economics. 45-53.
Microsoft Antitrust Case
Antitrust Practices and Market Power
Antitrust case: 2001 antitrust Microsoft settlement
Microsoft Windows is such a ubiquitous piece of software, it is virtually impossible to imagine using a computer without it. Even though many people dislike the system, to function in contemporary life requires most students and workers to be familiar with the product. This lack of de facto choice has led Microsoft to become the subject of numerous antitrust lawsuits, the longest and most extensive of which involved its built-in Internet browser, Internet Explorer. The government alleged that by bundling IE into Microsoft Windows, it subjected other browsers to unfair competitive practices and limited consumer choice. During the lawsuit: Microsoft contended "that it, and it alone, should be the arbiter of what new software is bundled into its Windows operating system, the equivalent of the central nervous system on 90% of personal computers. Besides, Microsoft contends, its Internet browser…...
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References
Good to know: Windows on a Mac. (2012). Apple. Retrieved:
Antitrust Practice and Market Power
Antitrust Practices and Market Power
government promulgates antitrust law to prohibit unfair business practices in the United States and enhancing competitions within the U.S. marketplace. Several business practices are considered illegal under the antitrust law and these practices include illegal monopoly, price fixing, illegally discouraging competition, and bid rigging. For example, Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 prohibits monopolizing the interstate commerce, bid rigging, and price fixing. Moreover, The Clayton Act of 1914 also prohibits all form of merger and acquisition that could restrict competition. Companies considered violating the antitrust law may be subjected to fines and the officials may face jail term.
Why were firm(s) being Investigated for the Antitrust Behavior?
The government can investigate firms for antitrust behaviors if the government suspects that a firm is carrying out the antitrust business behaviors that could violate antitrust law. An issue of Microsoft vs. Department of Justice was a special…...
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Reference
Economides, N.(2003). The Microsoft Antitrust Case, A Case Study for MBA Students. Stern School of Business, New York University.
Lenard, T, M., (2000). Creating Competition in the Market for Operating Systems: A Structural Remedy for Microsoft, mimeo. The Progress & Freedom Foundation.
Reddy, B. David, E. And Albert, N. (2000), "Why Does Microsoft Charge So Little for Windows?" mimeo.
Stigler, G.J. (2013). Economics. The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
Anti-Trust and EBooks
Within the contemporary economic environment, there are a number of systems and agreements between parties in the purchase/consume transaction. In any given marketplace, there are ways that businesses approach competition. If one business dominates the market and does not allow for equal or fair competition, a monopoly exists (geography, scale, technological coercive, etc.). Monopolies define and regulate the competition in markets; oligopoly changes this rubric to a small number of sellers controlling the market. Price and access are some of the ways in which market share and market competition continue to evolve. Price, of course, is the amount of payment required for a good or service. Price-fixing, though, is an agreement reached between businesses to buy or sell at fixed (manipulated) prices in order to control the market. The major difference between a monopoly and an oligopoly is the number of players that are manipulating the market --…...
Antitrust Practices and Market Power: Google Antitrust Behavior
Economic theory expresses that competition contributes substantially to the efficient operations of markets, and hence to the improvement of a nation's wealth status. Antitrust laws seek to foster competition in the marketplace and to consequently ensure that the welfare of consumers is maximized through the provision of low-priced high-quality products. This the laws do by preventing the emergence of cartels and monopolies, which impede on competition by creating barriers to entry, with the help of which they are able to obtain market power and consequently drive market prices to favor them. Although monopolies may result from either government action or natural reasons, in which case they are referred to as government and natural monopolies respectively, most monopolies are formed through exclusivity contract arrangements, mergers, acquisitions, and collusion. Antitrust laws work at limiting these.
Antitrust Laws: Apple's Case
Competition is a vital element of any vibrant marketplace. Thanks to competition, both businesses and individuals get to benefit from lower prices, increased product variety, higher-quality commodities, and greater innovation. Antitrust laws are meant to ensure that consumers are protected from unfair business practices and anticompetitive mergers, and that consequently, effective levels of competition are created and sustained in the economy.
Antitrust laws differ from country to country and, at times, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In the U.S., antitrust laws include the Sherman Act of 1890 and the Federal Trade Commission and Clayton Acts, both of 1914 (FTC, 2014). The Sherman Act, whose violation is punishable by criminal law, outlaws any attempts to monopolize a market or restrain trade through rig bids, divide markets, or price fixation (FTC, 2014). The Federal Trade Commission Act, on the other hand, illegalizes any '"unfair methods of competition' and 'unfair or deceptive…...
(discuss them and then choose one that would possibly work)
One possible solution for this anti-trust problem, which is currently proposed by authorities, is that Microsoft should allow its competitors to access its information database. In this way, the competition could build new applications that are compatible with the Microsoft operating systems - Windows so would not be affected by the Microsoft strategy to develop an integral and connected line of products. Another solution could be the individual taxation of Microsoft due to its market power. In this case, the taxes that could be as high as 0% from the total profits and would unfairly tax the advantage taken in time by Microsoft. The money for this tax could be otherwise used by Microsoft for development plans, or why not for resolving social aspects - the poverty reduction of third world countries.
Another answer proposed by analysts in this case was…...
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1) Lemos, Robert. CNET News, 2003-06-10. Retrieved on 2007- 02-05
2) Mace, Michael. www.pa.msu.eduarchived from apple.com, February 9, 1995
3) Rebello, Kathy. www.businessweek.comBusiness Week, 1997-06-15. Retrieved on 2007- 02-05
Antitrust
I don't have the proper bibliographical info for the book chapters. I noted the number from the two PDFs of the book where appropriate. You might wish to add the proper info and change the notes to fit.
MAKET CONDITIONS in the U.S.: It would seem highly unlikely that this information alone would be sufficient to bring an antitrust action. Prudent and even gutsy or aggressive business people might well seek such information to generate a competitive advantage with little intention toward manipulating the market (Fried Frank, 2002). Even if it does lean toward some expected restraint of trade (Sherman Act), what is occurring at this point clearly passes the reasonableness test. Talking of such issues is not collusive price fixing and suggests no conscious parallelism, for example, which might indicate that their association is for inappropriate purposes (pg. 468).
DETAILS of INDIVIDUAL SALES: In this instance the burden of predatory intent…...
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REFERENCES
Bern, R. (1995). A Biblical Model for Analysis of Issues of Law and Public Policy: With illustrative applications to contracts, antitrust, remedies and public policy issues. Regent University Law Review, Vol. 6. 103-196.
Elzinga, F. (n.d.). CASE 9: Collusive Predation: Matsushita v. Zenith (1986). Viewable at www.oup.com/us/pdf/kwoka/0195120159_09.pdf.
Fried Frank (2002). Firm Hit with $1 Billion Antitrust Verdict for Aggressive Marketing Practices. Fried Frank Antitrust and Competition Law Alert. Viewable at www.ffhsj.com/practice_groups/antitrust.htm.
Antitrust Practices and Market Power
The modern business environment is increasingly characterized by the proliferation of emerging monopolies in various industries. One of the industries that have experienced an increase in budding monopolies is Information Technology, particularly with the growth and development of social media and networks. Technology companies have rapidly developed into monopolies because of the connection between attractive business opportunities. The growth of leading technology companies into monopolies has also been fueled by their efforts to gain and maintain market power. However, some of these companies such as Google, AT&T, Standard Oil, Microsoft, and Facebook have been investigated for antitrust behavior.
Similar to Google, Facebook is company whose growth and development is partly attributed to the failure by Microsoft to strangle it like it did to Netscape a decade before. Facebook's business and operations are entirely built on focusing on developing network effects since the firm's value for users is…...
Fox, J. (2013, January). The Web's New Monopolies. Atlantic Monthly, 30-34.
Windrum, P. (n.d.). Back from the Brink: Microsoft and the Strategic Use of Standards in the Browser Wars. Retrieved November 13, 2014, from http://arno.unimaas.nl/show.cgi?fid=292
One of the most famous and prolonged cases involving antitrust allegations was that of the suit brought about by the Department of Justice against the Microsoft Corporation. It was alleged that Microsoft's act of 'bundling' specific applications such as its web browser, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player to make them the default setting of its Windows operating system resulted in anticompetitive practices within the software industry. The European Union also waged an antitrust case against Microsoft, and its findings against the company were even more broad and sweeping than in the United States. As a result, in the EU, Microsoft "was not allowed to offer any technological, commercial, or contractual term or inducement to make the bundled version the more attractive, and a monitoring trustee was required to ensure that the unbundled version of Windows works as well as the bundled version"…...
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References
Economides, N., & Lianos, I. (2009). The elusive antitrust standard on bundling in Europe and in the United States in the aftermath of the Microsoft cases. Antitrust Law Journal, 76(2), 483-567.
Online AntiTrust Issues
Antitrust law is a United States legal code that helps to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competition actions by organizations. The Sherman Act of 1890 was one of the first attempts to restrict large companies who fixed price, output and then manipulated demand to maximize their products. Standard Oil was one of the prime early examples of a company that controlled markets to the point that the government felt was detrimental to the entry of other competitors (Bork, 1993). In our current example, companies like Facebook and Google are being investigated, similar to Microsoft and AT&T, for controlling the Internet search process and/or network effects. This does not stop with Facebook and Google, but moves into many of the giant e-tailers (Amazon, EBay, etc.) that often use predatory or collusive practices to force customers into either advertising on their site, pricing to their scale, or in the case…...
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REFERENCES
Is Microsoft a Monopoly? If so, why does it matter? (2009). Thisnation.com. Retrieved from:
International Social Science eview, 85(1-2), 62-63.
Halachmi, a. & Bouckaert, G. (1996). Organizational performance and measurement in the public sector. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
3.
How has congressional agenda setting changed over time?
The agenda of the U.S. Congress has been closely aligned with its role as the legislative branch of the U.S. government. According to Black's Law Dictionary (1991), "The first Congress under the Constitution met on March 4, 1789 in the Federal Hall in New York City" (p. 301). Indeed, the creation of the U.S. Congress coincided with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. In this regard, Black's (1991) adds that, the U.S. Congress was created pursuant to Article I, Section 1, of the Constitution, adopted by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787 providing that "all legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of epresentatives" (p.…...
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References
Black's law dictionary. (1991). St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.
Colker, R. (2007). The mythic 43 million Americans with disabilities. William and Mary Law
Review, 49(1), 1-3.
Vile, J.R. (1994). Constitutional change in the United States: A comparative study of the role of constitutional amendments, judicial interpretations, and legislative and executive actions. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Additionally, he argued that the best interest of the consumers, as promoted by Gate's organization, was in fact not the core element of new endeavors, as the company had argued, but that whenever a new product or service was being projected, this would be done in order to serve the financial interests of the organization rather than increase customer utility (Kegel, 2006).
In order to better understand why the above mentioned actions were ethical or unethical, it is best to assess them in light of three ethical perspectives. From the standpoint of the utilitarian perspective, the company is able to seek out those actions which maximize its gains, but in doing this, it must remain aware of the needs of others. More specifically, they can work towards their goals as long as these do not impede with the goals of others (Leiss, 1988). From this standpoint, the behavior of Microsoft was…...
Unethical Business esearch Practices
What unethical research behavior was involved?
The antitrust case brought by Wal-Mart and other retailers against Visa and MasterCard in the U.S. Eastern District court, was settled in 2003 for $3 billion and primarily involved a dispute concerning the efficient pricing of access to payment information, including security data that confirmed or refuted the transactional identities of cardholders (oberds & Schreft, 2009). In their pleadings, Wal-Mart and other class action litigants argued that third-party providers such as Visa and MasterCard required them to accept both debit and credit cards issued by MasterCard but the interchange fees were higher for debit cards (Ulzheimer, 2012). In sum, the suit filed by Wal-Mart and other large retailers claimed that Visa and MasterCard "required all merchants who accept their credit cards to also accept their signature debit cards [which] constitutes an illegal tie-in in violation of antitrust law" (Peterson, 2002, p. 31).…...
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References
An introduction to ISO 27001. (2012). The ISO2700 Directory. Retrieved from http://www.
27000.org/iso-27001.htm.
Azola, M. (2011). The Reconciliation Project: Separation and integration in business ethics research. Journal of Business Ethics, 99, 19 -- 36.
Binning, D. (2012). Top five cloud computing security issues. ComputerWeekly. Retrieved from:
channel management practices that have been developed via thorough research and analysis of the world's leading companies?
Channel management is a process that entails managing the relationship between a vendor and the third parties used by them to get goods and products into client's hands, while making sure that the post-sales services and support are still of high quality. A channel can be either a one- or two-tier relationship. In the one-tier relationship, a vendor is selling products directly to a reseller; in the two-tier relationship, a vendor is selling to the third parties indirectly through a distributor. Effective channel management can help to greatly increase revenue and profit margins for vendors through creating incentives for channel partners to promote or market their own branded services and support; it is also useful to be able to achieve the right overall pricing for the end users[footnoteef:2]. [2:
Childerhouse, P., & Towill, D.R. (2003). Simplified material flow holds the key to supply chain integration. Omega, 31(1), 17-27.
Choon Tan, K., Lyman, S.B., & Wisner, J.D. (2002). Supply chain management: a strategic perspective. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 22(6), 614-631.
Council of Logistics Management (CLM). (2000). What it's all about. Oak Brook, IL: Council of Logistics Management.
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