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Topic

Antitrust Litigation

Government and private lawsuits alleging monopolization, price-fixing or other anticompetitive conduct, often aimed at large tech and consumer companies.

Current stories

investOne report1 publisher

Lawsuit alleges McDonald's uses AI 'pricing engine' to set menu prices; company denies using AI to gauge what individual customers will pay

McDonald's faces a federal antitrust suit alleging an AI 'pricing engine' sets its U.S. menu prices and overcharges for Big Macs and fries. Its denial addresses individualized pricing, the same line Walmart and Kroger have drawn for their own stores.

Publishers:cnbc.com

Reality

Evidence35
Adoption30
Hype gap+35
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence40
productConfirmed2 publishers

Judge certifies every US card issuer that paid Apple Pay fees as one antitrust class

Judge Jeffrey White certified a class of every US card issuer that paid Apple its Apple Pay fees of 0.15% on credit and half a cent on debit. Those fees are still charged on every tap while the case runs, so certification gives issuers more leverage in court well before it lowers what they pay.

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives65
Confidence60
productConfirmed3 publishers

FCC clears three Gulf sovereign funds to hold 49.5% of Paramount's equity

Paramount says the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar will take its indirect foreign ownership to 49.5 percent. The FCC approved that. The purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery still waits on a March antitrust trial.

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers
Builder
Builder 12%
Operator
Operator 47%
Investor
Investor 41%

Reality

Evidence68
Adoption30
Hype gap+14
Incentives78
Confidence66
productOne report1 publisher

Sony settles its PlayStation Store antitrust case at about $1.34 of credit per account

A judge in San Francisco will decide whether roughly $5.89 million in PlayStation Store credit, spread over 4,407,533 accounts, closes the Sherman Act case over Sony's 2019 decision to stop supplying retail download codes.

Publishers:engadget.com

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption28
Hype gap+8
Incentives74
Confidence58
productOne report1 publisher

A special master clears Apple twice to read 14 agencies' smartphone policy files

Jose Linares held that agencies which inform executive branch policy count as the United States itself, so Apple can pull the security and purchasing records behind the government's own phone choices without a third-party burden test.

Publishers:9to5mac.com

Reality

Evidence66
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+14
Incentives45
Confidence58
productOne report1 publisher

Iowa's attorney general defends the Paramount merger by pricing its delay

Twelve states sued to block the $111 billion Paramount-Warner deal. The reply travelling furthest is an Iowa op-ed that totals up the ticking fee while leaving the deal's economics to a promise about movie counts.

Publishers:techdirt.com

Reality

Evidence32
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+38
Incentives82
Confidence38
productOne report1 publisher

Apple's discovery fight over 14 agencies is really a fight over its privacy defense

Apple says the Justice Department's bid to undo its right to subpoena 14 federal agencies "fails at every level." What is actually at stake is whether its justification defense gets documents.

Publishers:9to5mac.com

Reality

Evidence46
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+12
Incentives63
Confidence42