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The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Bazaarvoice challenging the company's June 2012 acquisition of PowerReviews Inc. The department said that the $168.2 million transaction substantially lessened competition in the market for product ratings and reviews platforms in the United States, resulting in higher prices and diminished innovation. The department's lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, in San Francisco, seeks to restore the competition that was extinguished by the transaction. Bazaarvoice's acquisition of PowerReviews was not reported under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, which requires companies to notify and provide information to the department and the Federal Trade Commission before consummating certain acquisitions. The department began its investigation shortly after the transaction closed.
The complaint quotes internal company documents in which senior Bazaarvoice executives describe PowerReviews's role in the market:
- One of the company's co-founders noted that the acquisition of PowerReviews would
- "[e]liminat[e] [Bazaarvoice's] primary competitor" and provide "relief from [] price erosion;"
- The company's current chief executive officer wrote that Bazaarvoice had "literally, no other competitors" beyond PowerReviews; and
- The company's former chief executive officer projected that, as a result of the transaction, Bazaarvoice would have "[n]o meaningful direct competitor."
Justice Department Files Suit Against Bazaarvoice’s Acquisition of PowerReviews US Fights Bazaarvoice Acquisition of Its Rival (WSJ)
The Federal Communications Commission announced plans to launch a rulemaking to strengthen the reliability and resiliency nationwide of our country’s 9-1-1 communications networks during major disasters. Widespread outages and disruptions to 9-1-1 services in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions – impacting more than 3.6 million people – led to an in-depth FCC inquiry into what went wrong, and what steps should be taken to better ensure public safety. The inquiry, conducted by the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, included in-depth investigation, public comment and analysis. In the report issued today, the Bureau noted that a significant number of 9-1-1 systems and services were partially or completely down for several days after the derecho – from isolated breakdowns in Ohio, New Jersey, Maryland, and Indiana to systemic failures in northern Virginia and West Virginia. In all, seventy-seven 9-1-1 call centers (known as public safety answering points or “PSAPs”) serving more than 3.6 million people in these six states lost some degree of connectivity, including vital information on the location of 9-1-1 calls. Seventeen of the 9-1-1 call centers, mostly in northern Virginia and West Virginia, lost service completely, leaving more than 2 million residents unable to reach emergency services for varying periods of time.
Unlike hurricanes and superstorms, which are generally well-forecast, derechos are more like earthquakes, tornados, and man-made events for which there is little-to-no advance notice and opportunity to prepare. As such, the derecho provided a snapshot of the reliability and readiness of a portion of the Nation’s communications infrastructure in the face of unanticipated disasters – and it revealed considerable flaws in the resiliency planning and implementation of the primary 9-1-1 network providers in the affected region. In most cases, the disruptions would have been avoided if the communications network providers that route calls to 9-1-1 call centers, had fully implemented industry best practices and available industry guidance.
The Bureau outlined specific suggestions to address the primary causes of the derecho-related outages and to promote the reliability and resiliency of 9-1-1 communications networks during disasters. Chief among these, the Bureau recommended that the Commission consider actions in the following areas to ensure that communications providers:
- Maintain adequate central office backup power
- Have reliable network monitoring systems
- Conduct periodic audits of 9-1-1 circuits
- Notify 9-1-1 call centers of problems
Impact of the June 2012 Derecho on Communications Networks and Services - Report and Recommendations Impact of the June 2012 Derecho on Communications Networks and Services - Report and Recommendations (read the report) Statement (Commissioner Rosenworcel) Statement (Commissioner Pai) Feds blame phone companies for ‘unacceptable’ 911 outages after derecho (The Hill)
Google will be forced to change the way it presents search results in Europe or face antitrust charges for “diverting traffic” to its own services, the European Union’s competition chief has said, laying out a sharply different approach from his US counterparts.
In contrast to the Federal Trade Commission, which has given the all-clear to Google’s search engine, Joaquín Almunia vowed to prevent Google distorting choices for consumers and taking business from rivals. “We are still investigating, but my conviction is [Google] are diverting traffic,” Commissioner Almunia said, referring to Google’s preferential treatment of its own vertical search services. “They are monetizing this kind of business, the strong position they have in the general search market and this is not only a dominant position, I think – I fear – there is an abuse of this dominant position,” Europe’s antitrust enforcer said. His words mark a direct ultimatum to Google as talks on a pre-charge settlement enter a critical phase. They offer the most detailed public explanation of Brussels’ concerns and hint at the likely shape of any deal, which would mark the first time Google has bowed to regulatory pressure on its core business.
Brussels takes tough stance on Google EU Still Wants to Challenge Google “Diverting Traffic” to Its Own Services (Wall Street Journal)
President Barack Obama signed a bill to allow users of Facebook and other social media sites to opt in to automatically share which videos they have watched on sites like Netflix.
Facebook users could already choose to automatically reveal which songs they listened to and which articles they read. But the Video Privacy Protection Act banned the sharing of any video history information without written consent by the consumer for each video or a warrant from the police. Congress passed the Video Privacy Protection Act in 1988 after the Washington City Paper published a list of videotape rentals by Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork during his contentious nomination process. Although Bork's rental history was mostly innocuous, members of Congress were outraged at the breach of privacy.
President Obama signs bill to let Facebook users share Netflix videos
We applaud Chairman Genachowski for announcing the [Federal Communications Commission] will examine the spectrum in the 5GHz band for unlicensed devices and services, as directed by the spectrum law Congress passed last year. Focusing additional unlicensed development in that spectrum, which is particularly well suited for such purposes, will enable us to maximize use of other spectrum, returned by broadcasters, for auction of wireless licenses. This approach will not only best meet our mobile broadband goals, but also maximize revenue for construction of the nationwide public safety network, another key objective of the spectrum law.
Reps Walden, Latta Welcome Progress on Efforts to Increase Unlicensed Spectrum
A first-of-its-kind report gathered data from thousands of women in developing countries to shed light on the lack of women on the web. On average, 25 percent fewer women than men are online today; yet, if action is taken now, 600 million women could have access to the internet in the next three years.
“Women and the Web: Bridging the internet gap and creating new global opportunities in low and middle-income countries,” commissioned by Intel Corp. in consultation with the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Women’s issues, UN Women, and World Pulse, aims to answer questions such as “What is the size of the internet gender gap?” and “What prevents women from accessing the internet?” “200 million fewer women than men are online today,” said Shelly Esque, president of Intel Foundation and vice president of corporate affairs for Intel. “In many regions, the internet gender gap reflects and amplifies existing inequalities between the sexes.”
Rise of the next digital divide: Women and the web
The trouble is that technology has enabled us to break up the process of getting a movie or TV show into many different pieces controlled by different service providers. But as we do this, we’ve have also taken out any accountability, which puts the consumer in the middle of any disputes over service quality.
It’s a well-known secret in the peering world that ISPs sometimes choke the traffic coming in from large content companies as a reason to charge them more money for the privilege of interconnecting to them. That’s suspected of happening with Free in France, and has triggered an investigation by the French telecoms authority. It’s also happened in the US, although most of the arguments on the issue are solved by negotiation rather than a government probe.
Consumers are stuck between ISPs and content giants in the battle for online video
The Federal Communications Commission published a proposed rule requiring all wireless carriers to support text messages to 911 in addition to standard phone calls to the emergency number.
The agency said it planned to publish the new rule Dec. 12 and announced a deal with the nation’s four largest wireless carriers to support the service December 7. Publication now starts the clock ticking for wireless carriers, emergency responders and other interested groups to comment on the proposed rule before the FCC votes on a final regulation. The comment period on the proposed rule closes Jan. 29.
FCC Publishes Proposed Text-to-911 Rule Next Generation 911; Text-to-911; Next Generation 911 Applications (see Federal Register notice)
[Commentary] Sen Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) speech at the Consumers Electronics Show touches on a number of Internet, copyright, patent, and telecommunications policy ideas. One theme that unites many of them is the need to update the law to match the digital economy. This is as true for broadband policy as it is for copyright.
New legislation to address these aspects of telecommunications policy and clarify the FCC's authority over broadband would be very useful. While the FCC has enacted Open Internet rules with existing authority, those rules are being challenged in court and could be thrown out or weakened. But even apart from this issue, the FCC keeps running into problems when it tries to craft broadband policies under existing law. For instance, universal service programs--which try to make sure that all Americans can access vital communications services--are still largely tied to traditional voice services, with broadband tacked on. To be sure, the FCC could avoid many of these problems by recognizing that broadband itself is a telecommunications service just like voice, and covered by many existing laws the FCC today is hesitant to apply. But proponents of a free and open Internet need to have their own plan for revisiting our basic telecommunications policies, which don't always apply neatly to the market today. After all, AT&T does.
Protecting the Freedom to Compete by Reforming Competition Law
[Commentary] Sen Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) Freedom to Compete agenda contains many concrete proposals to preserve and promote an open Internet. One proposal would instruct the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to seek open Internet principles in “all trade discussions” and also talk about the process by which these trade discussions take place.
We at PK have always said that promoting an open Internet is not the sole preserve of communications policy or Internet governance policy (a term used more in international forums). Many other areas, including copyright policy, can have adverse impacts on the Internet and policy makers must be careful to avoid these impacts. For instance, copyright enforcement policies that view the Internet as a means that facilitates infringement target internet intermediaries in a manner that hurts the free speech rights of the many to prevent the allegedly infringing acts of the few (think ICE seizures of domain names). This hurts the free flow of information on the Internet.
Sen Wyden Calls for Trade Agreements that respect Open Internet Principles