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Research Legal Case Analysis: William Andrews
Research Legal Case Analysis: William Andrews
William Andrews
The federal government is taking a closer look at big tech and whether some of
the nation's leading technology companies are stifling competition. The House Judiciary
Facebook. These four companies have seemingly gained power without being unfair. In
particular, Facebook's acquisition of Instagram a few years back. As a result, this gave
consumers a limited number of options between social network companies. Experts say
it would be reasonable for the government to reconsider the merge consider making
Facebook a spin off of Instagram. Big tech companies are in violation of the Sherman
Antitrust Act seeing as many of their services are free for their customers.
Senator Elizabeth Warren argues that Amazon should not be able to run their
marketplace with the amount of traffic the marketplace gets daily. If that were the
significant departure from the way antitrust has worked in America for a long time now.
(Goldstein). Google, Amazon and Facebook are following the same playbook. The tech
giants have "platform privilege"—the incentive and ability to prioritize their own goods
and services over those of competitors that depend on their platforms. By doing so, they
contend they are improving their products and benefiting customers. An entrepreneur
can create a superior product or service and still lose business because Big Tech is
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controlling the game and playing it, too. This distorted playing field strikes at the heart of
the American Dream. And it deprives consumers of the choice, innovation and quality
In the Jackson vs. Capital Company case, the Capital company was somewhat
giving their services to their customers; the same as Big Tech. The Capital Company
gave their customers “purchaser discounts”. The Capital Company was also gaining
power unfairly and tried to sabotage Jackson Inc. so they had no way to make money,
and debilitated their ability to retaliate. The Capital Company company offered many of
The Capital Company acted against the Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The act prohibits monopolies, attempts to form monopolies, and combinations and
conspiracies to do so. In this case, the Capital Company did create monopolies. In the
facts listed, the Capital Company offered higher rebates conditioned on customers
purchasing products from Capital Company, the company offered many of Jackson’s
purchases of tape from Jackson. They had customer-specific target growth rates in
each product line. The size of the rebate was linked to the number of product lines in
which the target was met, and the number of targets met by the buyer was determined
by the rebate it would receive from all of its purchases. These decisions played a part in
the attempt to form illegal monopolies. The Capital Company tried to sabotage and
The Capital Company only made one legal decision throughout this whole case.
customers conditioned on purchases spanning six of the Capital’s diverse product lines.
This is legal, and targeting Jackson’s main purchasers is a way to make sure that
Yes, Capital Company did violate Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The
defendant willfully did not acquire or maintain the power that they had through
superior product or business acumen. Capital Company gained the power that they had
by “stealing” purchasers and manipulating the system with rebates and targeting certain
States government established through the Federal Trade Commission Act. The
purpose of the Federal Trade Commission is to protect all consumers and people who
are in competition with others in similar markets from wrong doers. The FTC helps
educate consumers and businesses on laws and regulations within ecommerce, as well
as help make the laws and regulations that businesses must abide by in order to remain
free of penalties and lawsuits. The FTC also advocates these rules and policies so that
the general public are aware of what is allowed and what is prohibited in the business.
In the process of assuring that businesses abide by the laws and regulations, the
protections and security available to them. The mission of the Federal Trade
Commission is to provide all consumers and competitors with an equal playing field
The Freedom of Information Act is a law that allows the public the right to request
a federal document that is in the hands of the United States government. The request
does not guarantee that you will be granted access to the document, but the FOIA
allows public users the right to request. As stated on the FTC website, the federal FOIA
does not provide access to records held by state or local government agencies, or by
Protection, and Bureau of Economics. These three bureaus work together to regulate
the laws and protect against false, and unethical business practices. The Bureau of
grounds by enforcing antitrust laws. The United States has a free market economy
which means that the economy is based on supply and demand. With a free economy,
there is a need for laws to ensure all competitors act accordingly and ethically.
The antitrust laws are the foundation of our free market economy, and allows
those who participate in the market to understand the do’s and don'ts while conducting
business. The antitrust laws allow consumers to have many options to choose from and
not be forced to buy from one producer. The antitrust laws also allow consumers to
shop low prices and still receive good quality. The Bureau of Consumer Protection is
responsible for protecting consumers against fraudulent practices. This is done through
The Bureau of Consumer Protection also keeps track of companies that have
been sued and any other activity that goes against the laws set for the marketplace to
thrive on fair terms. Businesses in the market have rules and responsibilities that they
must follow in order to stay away from being sued. Also, consumers are educated on
the rules and responsibilities that businesses have to follow so that if they are ever
help the FTC keep track of the impact made on the economy. The Bureau of Economics
The FTC brings first case against developers of stalking apps. These
installation. Many consumers had no idea of what they were agreeing to when they
installed these stalker apps and it has led to the FTC demanding the developers of the
apps to take all of their apps down. The developers can no longer sell, promote, or
distribute any apps that require the user to breach their mobile devices security settings.
The FTC also demanded that the developers of the stalker apps delete all information
retained through the apps use. In the final decision the developers were forced to stop
selling these types of apps in 2018 and they are no longer in use. I agree with the
Federal Trade Commission's decision to cease the development of such apps because
This model for ethical evaluation is usually used because it can encourage public
officials to consider how their actions may or may not look to the outside world. It is a
method that makes you ask yourself if you would want your current actions on the front
measure your integrity and why it is discussed and evaluated when discussing business
Billionaire Warren Buffett has a ‘simple’ test making tough decisions–here’s how it
works
The Laura Nash Model developed questions to help people working in business
dilemma. The questions Laura Nash asks are: “Have you defined the problem
accurately? How would you define the problem if you stood on the other side of the
fence? How did this situation occur in the first place? What is your intention in making
this decision? How does the intention compare with the probable results? Whom could
your decision or action injure? Can you discuss your decision with the affected parties?
Are you confident that your position will be as valid over a long period of time as it
seems now? Could you discuss your decision with your supervisor, coworkers, officers,
board, friends, and family?” Asking these questions with the Laura Nash Model makes
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room for examining an ongoing ethical dilemma from all perspectives; and in doing so,
defines the problem and its origin to ensure a similar issue won't happen again.
After careful review of the fact pattern and ethical models “the Front-Page of the
Newspaper Test” and “the Laura Nash model”, the Capital Company’s actions have
been perceived as unethical and they should not continue giving Jackson’s customers
these rebates. Capital company ended their sale of transparent tape in the early 1990s
and began selling office supplies, the same as Jackson Inc. and several other
companies in the early 1990s. It is not ethical for Capital Company to broaden their
market to all office supplies the same as Jackson’s because Capital Company engages
transparent tape and preventing other companies like Jackson Inc. from gaining and
“The Front-Page of the Newspaper Test,” ethical model gives more leverage as
to how Capital Company acts unethical in the competitive market by asking the
company to question themselves. How would Capital Company feel if their company
was on the front page of the newspaper, their practices being brought into question?
Not only is that a bad look for the company, it also challenges the company’s
consumers to ask themselves if they want to support a company that acts in such
manner towards competition. The fact pattern uses Jackson Inc. and other related
companies like Walmart, Kmart, Sam’s Club, and Target to emphasize the question
asked by Laura Nash “can you confidently discuss your decision with the affected
party?”. Capital Company Inc. uses competitive antics that harm its neighboring
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acting in a harmful way to put themselves in the shoes of the company they are
harming. Capital Company Inc. should ask themselves “if this were happening to me
how would I feel?”. The Capital company uses rebate programs that set customer-
specific targets to lure consumers away from other leading companies that are similar in
practice.
These antics make for a successful company, but in a scheming manner and
reduces a level, competitive playing field. Capital Company Inc. wouldn’t behave this
way if they knew their tactics gave them an advantage, by being misleading and harmful
to companies of a similar nature. The simple fact that Capital Company has several
leading facts and sources that prove their antics to be unethical along with the two
provided ethical models, makes it easier to conclude that their actions are in fact
unethical. There should be a way for Capital company to innovate several ideas that will
better their business for their targeted consumers and leave room for fair competition in
References
Goldstein, Jacob. "Big Tech Antitrust" NPR (Jan 9, 2019).
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Hubbard, Sally. "The case for Why Big Tech is violating the Antitrust Laws." CNN (Jan 2, 2019).