Antitrust in e-Commerce Law of e-Commerce October 20, 2008 Guest – Randy Gordon Copyright, Peter Vogel,
Department of Justice
USDOJ Antitrust Division
Federal Trade Commission
Computer Industry US vs. IBM Apple vs. Microsoft US vs. Microsoft US v. Oracle
1st Big Bang >>>1890 Census Dr. Herman Hollerith ( )
2nd Big Bang >> World War II Invention of Computers
US vs. IBM Consent Decree about punch card monopoly January Antitrust lawsuit filed July Consent Decree about bundling Dismissed
3rd Big Bang>> 1981 IBM’s Personal Computer
Before IBM PC Two Major Operating Systems 1.Apple Computer 2.CP/M Operating System owned by Digital Research
Microsoft v. CPM
IBM Plan for the PC Intel microprocessors Control PC market by limiting OS to only IBM built machines using PC-DOS (Disk Operating System) IBM lost control of the Basis Input/Output System (BIOS) Clone market developed – Compaq, HP, etc Microsoft OS ran on Clones in competition with IBM using a version then call MS-DOS
Xerox Star
Apple Lisa
Windows 1.0
Windows 2.1
Windows 3.1
Evolution of Windows Xerox Research Labs created GUI (Graphic User Interface) with mouse sold “Star” Xerox licensed Apple the GUI 1985 Apple licensed Microsoft GUI for Windows 1.0 Apple sued Microsoft for Windows 2.1 for copyright infringement, and later Windows th Circuit held that GUI cannot be copyrighted
Software & Hardware Operating System Word Quicken Browser Excel … CPU (Central Processing Unit) disk monitor printer
OEM API …
Communications Protocols server
EU Fines Microsoft
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Human Relations Management (HRM) Financial Management Systems (FMS) Customer Relations Management (CRM) Supply Chain Management (SCM) Product Life Cycle Management Business Intelligence (BI)
EU clears Google-DoubleClick
Sources of Antitrust Law US–Federal law Sherman Act Clayton Act FTC Act Industry-specific acts US--State law Foreign law EU/Treaty of Rome National acts
Distribution Issues Section 1 of the Sherman Act: prohibits “contracts, combinations, or conspiracies” in restraint of trade.
Distribution Issues Section 2 of the Sherman Act >Prohibits abusive monopolies based on intent and great market power
Business Combinations: Mergers, Acquisitions, Joint Ventures. Section 7 of the Clayton Act Types of merger subject to competitive scrutiny include: Horizontal merger, which is a merger of competitors Vertical merger, which unites companies that stand in the relationship of supplier and buyer Conglomerate merger, which is a merger of companies that are not competitors and do not stand in a buyer-supplier relationship.