Two Assignment so be completed
kingstonman41
BUS638Week4-DiscussionForum1.docxBUS 638 Week 4 - Discussion Forum 1
Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates by commenting on their posts with constructive comments that move the conversation forward. Though two replies are the basic expectation for class discussions, for deeper engagement and learning, you are encouraged to provide responses to additional students and to respond to any comments or questions from other students. In addition, responding to the instructor’s questions or comments is mandatory. Continuing to engage with peers and the instructor will further the conversation and provide you with opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real-world experiences with the discussion topics.
There are two of my classmate’s discussion that is on this document. I need to respond to each one. Michelle Buckley and Jason Stack Please follow the instruction above and make it as detailed as possible.
Michelle Buckley
WednesdayOct 14 at 11:23am
The following article from The NY Times demonstrates a recent antitrust decision against a US multinational company by a foreign country, Germany:
· In June, Germany’s top court ruled that “Facebook had abused its dominance in social media to illegally harvest data about its users” (Satariano, 2020, para. 1).
· “The authorities said Facebook broke competition laws by combining data it collected about users across its different platforms, including WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as from outside websites and third-party apps” (Satariano, 2020, para. 3).
· As a result, Facebook “was ordered to allow people to block the company from combining their Facebook data with information about their activities on other apps and websites” (Satariano, 2020, para. 4).
Many companies rely on collecting information about their customers, especially technology companies. This provides valuable information that can be used for more targeted advertising and therefore revenue generation. In this case, German authorities concluded that a consumer only had one choice – either provide personal data or do not use the social media platform at all.
Peng (2017) describes antitrust as a policy “designed to combat monopolies and cartels” (p. 350). Further, Peng (2017) identifies key management strategies that companies can take to address future litigation such as what Facebook recently faced:
· “Understand the rules of the game governing competition around the world” (p. 364). Regulations differ from country to country and leaders must be educated.
· “Strengthen capabilities that more effectively compete and/or cooperate” (p. 364). Managers should understand fully the business they are in to swiftly adjust to changing conditions.
· “Know your opponents by developing skills in competitor analysis” (p. 364). Just as Managers must know their own business, they must also study what the competition is doing as well.
There seems to be a growing trend in the antitrust wars. As Peng (2017) states, “antitrust wars have now become a part of institution-based competitive dynamics using favorable rules of the game to undermine certain foreign firms’ competitive advantage” (p. 363). With more data and analytics tools available today than in the past, companies can monitor their competition more closely. Combined with expert knowledge of antitrust regulations, decisions can be made to give the company an edge. In addition to this growth, trust-busting is very politicized and often accelerates ahead of elections. Early on in the current presidential race, Bernie Sanders proposed several antitrust enforcement changes (Neppl, 2019). Depending on one’s political views, the arguments for and against stricter antitrust regulations are politically motivated.
References
Neppl, G. (2019, November 8). Antitrust enforcement “reform” as a political issue: the good, the bad, and the ugly. The National Law Review. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/antitrust-enforcement-reform-political-issue-good-bad-and-ugly (Links to an external site.)
Peng, M. W. (2017). Global business (4th ed.). https://redshelf.com/ (Links to an external site.)
PWC. (n.d). Top policy trends 2020: antitrust. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/risk-regulatory/strategic-policy/top-policy-trends/antitrust.html (Links to an external site.)
Satariano, A. (2020, June 23). Facebook loses antitrust decision in Germany over data collection. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/technology/facebook-antitrust-germany.html (Links to an external site.)
Jason Stack
WednesdayOct 14 at 7:16pm
Emerging Markets Trade / Antitrust Wars
The focus of this discussion is another exciting topic. Antitrust laws are nothing new to the United States economy or government. In fact, the 1890 Sherman Act was the first federal legislation in the United States to outlaw monopolies and trade restraints. It still forms the centerpiece of the U.S. Antitrust law (Trescott, 2019, par. ). By the time of Theodore Roosevelt's Presidency, a few hundred large organizations controlled almost half of the U.S. manufacturing and greatly influenced almost all key industries (PBS LearningMedia, 2020). Clay S. Jenkins stated that the only counterweight to capitalism is government. Labor would like to be the counterweight, but it is not quite yet, so the only entity that can create a restraining mechanism on runaway capitalism is a government (PBS LearningMedia, 2020). Nevertheless, to this day, antitrust cases still visit the courtrooms throughout the country and the world.
One example of a U.S. multinational organization that has had both domestic and foreign antitrust lawsuits is Google. According to McLaughlin and De Vynck (2020), Google has been fined billions of euros for breaking antitrust laws in Europe but has remained virtually untouched since the no action probe in 2013. The current ongoing investigation attempts to determine if Google has the power to skew results to favor its products and if it uses the iron fist over access to users to shut out rivals (par. 3). So, what influences can managers deploy to avoid future reoccurrences of this type of action? Below are three techniques that, according to Peng, should know to avoid antitrust/anti-complete lawsuits.
· Managers must understand the rules of the game governing competition around the world
· Managers need to strengthen capabilities that more effectively compete and/or operate
· Managers must "know your opponents" by developing skills in competitor's analysis.
Last, can these cases against antitrust purely motivated by public concern, or are they politically motivated? There is evidence that supports that antitrust cases are motivated by both public concern and political agendas. Chao (2018) gives the example of a 1971 antitrust prosecution to sway the media coverage during the Nixon presidency years (par. 4). However, that is why the justice system of the United States is so great. All the checks and balances typically remove most of the ill-willed intentions, although it is not perfect.
References
David McLaughlin and Gerrit De Vynck, The Detroit News, McLaughlin, D., & De Vynck, G. (2020, September 25). Google's search business targeted in U.S. antitrust case. Bloomberg. https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/business/2020/09/25/googles-search-business-targeted-us-antitrust-case/3529515001/
Peng, M. W. (2017). Global business (4th ed.). Retrieved from https://redshelf.com/ (Links to an external site.)
Trescott, P. B. (2019). Harrison Signs the Sherman Antitrust Act. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
Trust Busting. (2020, August 16). PBS LearningMedia. https://wljt.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/18e14deb-d7d6-4e42-9a5d-40595a2ee09d/trust-busting-the-roosevelts/
