Google reaches a settlement with the FTC
Google has reached a settlement with the FTC! Details can be found here.
The settlement concerns the licensing practices of some key technologies to competitors and the management of campaigns by online advertisers. The investigation into Google’s search-related practices, on the other hand, has been closed (by a 5-0 vote).
According to the press release, Google’s ‘Universal Search’ and other changes can be ‘plausibly justified as innovations that improved Google’s product and the experience of its users’.
We are all wondering the impact this outcome will have on the (European) Commission’s ongoing investigation (although we presume this did not catch DG Comp’s officials by surprise).
Btw, I will be speaking soon about antitrust and search engines, so these developments come in handy (not sure if that’s the right expression considering that for a couple of months I’ll be a one handed man..)
Chillin'Competition 
Updates: China’s first record fines on LCD cartelists
China’s antitrust authority, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”), imposed fines and penalties totaling $56.5 million on six South Korean and Taiwanese makers of liquid-crystal display screens for price fixing, following a six-year investigation and similar actions by the EU, South Korea and the U.S.
NDRC said the companies—South Korea’s LG Display Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. and Taiwan’s Innolux Corp., AU Optronics Corp., Chungwa Picture Tubes Ltd. and HannStar Display Corp.—met monthly between 2001 and 2006 to set their price for LCD panels, which are used in smartphones, computers and televisions.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323374504578220862089391652.html?mod=europe_home
(NDRC’s official press release (in Chinese): http://www.sdpc.gov.cn/xwfb/t20130104_521958.htm)
Ting Gong
4 January 2013 at 1:39 pm
I was just going to point out that “plausibly justified” language in response to your prior post on comparative strength of a case against Google.
It will be fascinating to see what the EC does.
Adam Miller
4 January 2013 at 6:01 pm
Thanks for the comment, Adam, and congrats for your very good blog!
I suppose you refer to Nico’s previous post; this post is mine, and we have quite different views on these issues, so rather than a contradiction what you read is a reflection of a genuinely different stance.
Best
Alfonso
Alfonso Lamadrid
4 January 2013 at 8:00 pm
My apologies for confusing authors.
Adam Miller
4 January 2013 at 8:11 pm
On a more frivolous note, you gotta love the wonderfully upbeat nickname given to Joaquín Almunia in the FTC’s transcripts:
“we talk to the Europeans fairly often, I actually spoke to Lucky Nahmoodia … this morning”. (p. 12)
http://www.ftc.gov/video-library/transcripts/130103google-pc.pdf
Simon
14 January 2013 at 10:44 am