Consumerist
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antitrust
Verizon Limits Handset Exclusivity To 6 Months
Verizon announced it will limit handset exclusivity deals to 6 months, a bow to pleas by small wireless carriers, and in advance of possible Department of Justice action on its inquiries on the one-carrier deals for the iPhone, Pre and LG Voyager. In its announcement, Verizon noted 24 rural carriers had asked it to limit these anti-competitive deals. Yes, apparently there are that many small carriers still left.
Verizon Says It Will Limit New Handset Deals [Reuters] (Photo)
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mergers
Ticketmaster And Live Nation Agree To Merge
That booming evil laughter you heard echoing across the sky earlier today came from the board room where Live Nation and Ticketmaster agreed to an all-stock merger between their two blighted companies. Ticketmaster Chairman Barry Diller says the merger will benefit customers, who are frequently "frustrated by their ticket buying experiences." Oh! So by merging the two companies most responsible for those frustrations, we'll cancel them out! This is doubleplus good, right? More » -
ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Is Evil And Must Die
Ticketmaster is an evil monopoly that steals cash from defenseless consumers. They are infinitely more evil than their hated 30% surcharge would suggest, and they must be destroyed. More »
9:30 AM on Sun Oct 12 2008
By Carey Alexander
65,366 views, 156 comments -
text messaging
Congress Asks Wireless Carriers To Justify Text Message Rate Increases
This week, Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) asked the top wireless carriers—AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile—to explain why they doubled the cost of sending text messages over the past 3 years. They have until October 6th to respond.
The similar price increases, coming at similar times, Kohl said, "is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace."
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ebay
eBay To Be Credit Card, PayPal Only
The word is that eBay is banning checks and money orders, and buyers will have to use PayPal or (if the seller has a credit card merchant account or an account with a service called ProPay), credit cards. More » -
twc
Man Files Antitrust Suit Against Time Warner Over Forced Cable Box Rentals
Matthew Meeds of Fairway, Kansas, doesn't want to pay Time Warner Cable a monthly rental fee for his cable box—he'd rather own one outright. He's filed suit against the cable provider and its parent company, Time Warner, Inc., accusing them of establishing an illegal tying arrangement by making the box rental a condition of the subscription agreement. He's seeking class-action status for all TWC premium customers in Kansas. More » -
class action settlements
Settlement In BA-VA Price-Fixing Class Action
You're entitled to a small refund if you bought tickets for a long haul flight on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic between August 11, 2004 and March 23, 2006. The amount is $7-$34 per flight taken. This is the settlement in a class action lawsuit contending the two airlines colluded to fix the price of fuel surcharges. More info at airpassengerrefund.com. [via RickSeaney] -
Email surfaced in a class action lawsuit against NVIDIA and ATI suggesting that the graphics card makers have engaged in illegal price-fixing for the past half-decade. [techPowerUp!]
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grocery shrink ray
Grocery Shrink Ray Hits Faultless Spray Starch
Mark says he's found fault with Faultless spray starch. The bottle shrunk by two ounces and is being sold for the same price, another victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray. Compare the products here and here. What's interesting is that when he called his mom, she said she had a different brand of starch spray. It too had shrunk by two ounces. Could manufacturers be colluding together to all decrease their products by the same amount at the same time? I've heard of price-fixing, but what about the legality of size-fixing? In any event, Mark emailed customer service about the new package. Their cheery reply, inside... More » -
class action
Today Is The Last Day To Join The DeBeers Diamond Class-Action Settlement
If you bought a diamond between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006, today is the last day to join the DeBeers class action settlement. It doesn't matter whether or not the diamond was bought from DeBeers, the diamond could have been bought from anywhere. The lawsuit contends that DeBeers uses its monopoly over most of the world's diamond mines to artificially inflate the price of diamonds and engages in other anti-competitive behaviors as well. It's expected that around $135,432,500 will be divided amongst all the eligible consumers. You can file claims online here.
(Thanks to Michael!)
(Photo: clagnut) -
printers
Customer Files Class-Action Suit Against HP & Staples, Charging Printer Ink Price Collusion
Ranjit Bedi, a Californian, has filed a lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard and Staples in a U.S. District Court in Boston, accusing the two companies of colluding to prevent the sale of third-party ink cartridges in Staples stores. Bedi is accusing HP of paying Staples over $100 million to get it to stop selling lower-priced ink refills, but none of the news sources we found supply any evidence to support that figure, so we hope Bedi has more than just a gut feeling about this. More » -
conflict of interest
Consumer Groups Ask FTC Head To Recuse Herself
Two consumer groups have asked Deborah Platt Majoras, the chair of the FTC, to recuse herself from the antitrust review of Google's purchase of Doubleclick. Majoras is married to a partner at Jones Day law firm, which represents Doubleclick. More » -
internet
Google Says It's Looking Into New Privacy Technologies
Google is looking into new ways to protect the privacy of its huge number of users, says their chief legal officer. These include "crumbled cookies," which spread a user's information out so that it's not connected to a single piece of code, and providing better information on the source of each ad that's served. More » -
anti-trust
Food Stamp Users Subsidize Your Credit Card Rewards Programs
Food stamp users are helping pay for your credit card rewards programs, according to "Priceless? The Social Costs Of Credit Card Merchant Restraints" (PDF), a paper by Gerogetown professor Adam Levitin published in the Harvard Journal on Legislation.
Merchants have to pay credit card companies a fee for every credit card transaction. Merchants are forbidden from passing this surchage directly to the customer incurring it and so raises all his prices (see pages 37-46). These fees are used to pay for credit card reward programs. The result is that customers who don't enjoy the benefit of rewards programs, like food stamp users, are paying for them.
Priceless? The Social Costs of Credit Card Merchant Restraints [SSRN]
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gas
FTC Says Gas Was Expensive Last Year Because Of Market Forces, Not Price Gouging
You can stop worrying about whether or not you got screwed by the gas industry. The Federal Trade Commission announced late last week that they've found no evidence of price gouging during 2006, when the average price of gas rose above $3 per gallon. Or as one oil industry spokesman puts it (tactlessly, for a spokesman), "It's difficult for the average American to understand market forces, but that is what's ultimately in play with this industry." More » -
not so fast
FTC Appeals, Still Trying To Stop Whole Foods/Wild Oats Merger
A judge has ruled in favor of the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger, but the FTC has announced they will appeal the decision and are asking that the merger be blocked pending that appeal. More » -
oh no you don't
3 Consumer Groups Speak Out Against Whole Foods/Wild Oats Marriage
Three consumer groups have filed an amicus brief on behalf of the FTC, which has moved to block Whole Foods' attempt to purchase rival Wild Oats. A federal judge is expected to rule on the case soon; in the meantime, Whole Foods earlier today extended its offer to Wild Oats until August 15th. Omg this is totally like when Heidi decided to move in with Spencer on The Hills! (We had to go to Wikipedia to write that sentence.) More » -
my, that's professional
Whole Foods CEO Caught Bashing Wild Oats Stock On Yahoo Forums
Back in 2005, when the (currently being opposed by the FTC) Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger was just a glint in the Whole Foods CEO's eye... John "Anonymous Troll" Mackey was on Yahoo! forums bashing Wild Oats stock. More »
antitrust
New York, 8:57 AM
Mon Nov 9
11 posts in the last 24 hours
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