Google and Facebook reportedly teaming up to fight lawsuits

[Dominik W]

Summary

Google and Facebook have allegedly teamed up to fight the lawsuits brought on by the US Government and States. This deal seems to have been in place for a while, and is an agreement not to compete with each other.

 

Quotes

Quote

WASHINGTON— Facebook Inc. FB -1.44% and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG -0.65% Google agreed to “cooperate and assist one another” if they ever faced an investigation into their pact to work together in online advertising, according to an unredacted version of a lawsuit filed by 10 states against Google last week.

Quote

Ten Republican attorneys general, led by Texas, are alleging that the two companies cut a deal in September 2018 in which Facebook agreed not to compete with Google’s online advertising tools in return for special treatment when it used them.

Google used language from “Star Wars” as a code name for the deal, according to the lawsuit, which redacted the actual name. The draft version of the suit says it was known as “Jedi Blue.”

Quote

Google and Facebook reportedly made a deal in September 2018 in which Facebook agreed not to compete with Google’s online advertising tools. In return, the social media giant was given “special treatment” when it used them itself, according to the Journal.

The lawsuit reportedly states that Google and Facebook knew their deal could result in antitrust investigations.

My thoughts

At its current state, this is only allegations, and no lawsuit has been filed-yet. It seems to be just a draft. However, this is very concerning. I'm in AP Microeconomics, and we just talked about monopolies and oligopolies, and this seems EXTREMELY illegal. Reference this slide from my class (specifically #27). While it isn't a formal price agreement, it is an agreement not to compete, so it could be viewed in such a way.

Spoiler

 

Sources

Wall Street Journal 

--(Click here if you want to avoid WSJ paywall)

CNBC

[jaslion]

I hope they lose again always fun. Really becomes time for some global laws to prevent tech giants from running the world but probably too late for that now

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

global laws to prevent tech giants from running the world but probably too late for that now

Did you mean running or ruining?

[jaslion]

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Did you mean running or ruining?

Both

[lostcattears]

The only way big businesses will lose is against bigger entities basically only the government.

[Poison4K]

I would also like to see Google and Facebook get the fucking smackdown laid on them

[Zodiark1593]

11 hours ago, lostcattears said:

The only way big businesses will lose is against bigger entities basically only the government.

Pretty sure Google can buy out some smaller governments at this point. 

[jagdtigger]

10 hours ago, Poison4K said:

I would also like to see Google and Facebook get the fucking smackdown laid on them

Nah thats too generous, id put them on the chopping block and cut them into pieces and place restrictions so  they cant merge ever again.

[Brooksie359]

10 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Pretty sure Google can buy out some smaller governments at this point. 

To be fair they could probably do the same with the US government if they wanted to. I mean if you have enough lobbyists they could easily get alot of sway in the government. The pharmaceutical and insurance companies do this already.