September 1, 2024Welcome to Letters from CAMP, a newsletter on anti-monopoly activity in Canada and abroad, brought to you by the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. In this installment we have:
Let’s dive in.
Labour Day: Celebrating Workers and CompetitionAs Labour Day approaches, CAMP is reflecting on the complementary role that pro-worker and anti-monopoly policy can and should play in the economy. Long ignored by the traditional antitrust community, the importance of protecting workers with anti-monopoly policy is beginning to have a renaissance. But as usual, some countries are pulling ahead of others. Take Canada and the U.S. for instance, who have both made strides but have taken different paths towards the same goal. In Canada, important legislative reforms have been made to include provisions against wage-fixing and no-poach agreements in our competition laws. Recent amendments also directed the Competition Bureau to include effects on workers in its analysis of mergers. On paper, we’re moving in the right direction. But laws are only as good as their enforcement, and Canada has yet to bring a case making use of the amended law. In the U.S. on the other hand, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) aren’t just talking the talk. This week both agencies announced a partnership with U.S. labour agencies to enhance their own scrutiny of worker impacts in merger reviews. More importantly, they’ve been bringing cases with labour at the center, putting teeth behind their worker protection mandates. In fact, impacts on workers are a key plank of the FTC’s challenge of the proposed Kroger-Albertsons grocery merger. Union representatives have signaled their low expectations for the solutions proposed by the companies pushing the merger. And they have good reason: they’ve been sold a false bill of goods from merging parties in the past. This Labour Day, we’re calling on the Competition Bureau to step up and show the same kind of leadership we’re seeing from the FTC and DOJ on worker issues. It’s time to breathe life into those legislative changes with bold enforcement. As the cost of living continues to rise, Canadian workers deserve a watchdog with real bite. Yelp Sues Google in Landmark Antitrust CaseHot on the heels of the U.S. court decision that found Google a monopolist in search, longtime foe Yelp has filed an antitrust suit against the search giant. Yelp’s case is an example of how federal antitrust action can create new avenues for individual firms to challenge monopolists. While the DOJ lawsuit focused on Google’s use of distribution agreements to lock up the future of the search market, Yelp’s lawsuit alleges that Google has illegally monopolized both general and local search markets through self-preferencing practices. Yelp’s case comes as the remedy for the DOJ search case remains to be decided. As remedy suggestions and analysis come from all sides, search newcomer Kagi has proposed a potentially powerful solution: treating Google’s search index as an “essential facility” and opening it up to would-be competitors. This approach could lower barriers to entry for innovative new search products based on the valuable resource at the heart of Google’s monopoly. Each of these developments are encouraging signs of a more competitive future in search, a market core to how we all discover information on the internet. In Canada, the Competition Bureau should take note as it conducts its expanded investigation of Google’s dominance in the online advertising market. Antitrust investigations are only truly successful if their remedies break monopoly power and open up markets to real competition. Court Docs Show Google’s Kingmaker Role in NewsAlways remember to turn your chat history off before talking about your monopoly. Revealed as part of the DOJ’s case against Google’s ad tech monopoly, messages show Google employees discussing which news companies should “live or die” amid falling ad revenues at the onset of the pandemic. Even more shocking, there are clear indications the employees knew their actions were likely illegal. The frank discussion of the tech giant’s power comes to an abrupt end when one of the employees realizes they have neglected to turn chat history off, common practice as the company seeks to skirt antitrust laws.
Sigh, indeed. The casual nature of the discussion, as well as the other 22 times employees belatedly realized history was on, reveal just how much power has been handed over to companies like Google. The revelations also underscore a point CAMP has been making for years: the future of Canada’s news industry cannot depend on the goodwill of a handful of tech employees in Silicon Valley. As Parliament gears up for another session, Canadian lawmakers must continue to take a hard look at the outsized power of Big Tech over our information ecosystem. While the intentions of individual employees may have been noble, this kind of power needs to rest with citizens of their respective countries. If you have any monopoly tips or stories you’d like to share, drop us a line at hello@antimonopoly.ca |
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