the idea that you can just acquire competitors has always seemed absurd to me when nominally monopolies are illegal
reality is the battlefield
- she/they (pl)
- breadthcharge.net/
the first line goes in Cohost embeds
🐥 I am not embroiled in any legal battle
🐦 other than battles that are legal 🎮
I speak to the universe and it speaks back, in it's own way.
mastodon
email: contact at breadthcharge dot net
I live on the northeast coast of the US.
'non-functional programmer'. 'far left'.
conceptual midwife.
https://cohost.org/NireBryce/post/4929459-here-s-my-five-minut
If you can see the "show contact info" dropdown below, I follow you. If you want me to, ask and I'll think about it.
You must log in to comment.
in reply to @NireBryce's post:
as a point of technicality, are monopolies themselves illegal anywhere in the world? i was under the impression that abusing your market power as a monopoly was what is illegal.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/2 (US)
Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $100,000,000 if a corporation, or, if any other person, $1,000,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.
but again, only nominally law, there's plenty of ways to squirrel out of it
Sure, but the Reagan administration looked carefully at the law and, upon detailed review, said "don't care." So in the United States, from then up until Lina Khan, it was only "anti-competitive" if the company said that it was doing it to raise prices. If it didn't plan that, then meh, prices would probably go down from economies of scale, and the consumer would magically benefit.
What do you mean "that sounds just like the same explanation for trickle-down economics"...?
right, they're only illegal insofar as it's still a law, just ignored by all parties