Microsoft Complains of Antitrust Violations by Google

It is worthy of repetition that while I am a libertarian, I maintain that regulatory policy is sensible in the area of competition because it is demonstrably possible that a firm could depress welfare through anti-competitive behaviour. At the same time, I am aware that as George Stigler argued, the market is such a tough and dynamic place that most anti trust policy achieves very little that is positive. more importantly, it is clear that calculating corporations may incite or instigate anti-trust investigations against a competitor to defeat with a view to using government muscle to ensure that a competitor is restrained in legitimate market activity.

And perhaps one firm in the modern times that faced a multiple of claims that its behavior as a dominant firm was distorting markets outcomes was none other than Microsoft. indeed some people have made the claim, unconvincing in my view, that the very rise of Google was made possible due to the temporary distraction that Microsoft faced over a decade since its tribulations with competition authorities commenced. so the irony of this came to me starkly when I learned from this piece by Mark Sweeney in the Guardian that Microsoft is suing Google for violation of competition rules.

I have not had a chance to review any official documents in order to make some comments but I still think that as stated in that piece, this is very interesting. And yet, it is clear, with the benefit of hindsight, that it was predictable.I would like to see what the "pattern of actions" that Microsoft has identified constitute violations by Google.