Collusion among all the big players in an industry, in order to exclude other players from succeeding in that industry is indeed anti-competitive, and potentially illegal. There’s potential merit here in businesses coordinating with each other on who to blacklist withing the industry, which is why lawyers were willing to take on the case.
Ultimately, it’s a question for a judge whether they’re doing this for the purpose of suppressing competition, somehow, or whether they’re doing it for valid business reasons (like, say, avoiding a company with a history of not paying its bills, or avoiding a company with a history of sabotaging business relationships, or avoiding a company that their own customers actively hate, and would lose them business).
Of course, with the courts the way they are these days, I’m not holding my breath for the obviously-sensible ruling.
The problem with that is companies who advertise with X and X themselves are not in the same industry. That’s like saying if I had a hardware store who advertises with a newspaper, that means my hardware store is in the same business as the newspaper. What?
As far as “why lawyers were willing to take on the case” I’d guess it’s because they’re going to rake in huge fees regardless of the outcome.
Collusion among all the big players in an industry, in order to exclude other players from succeeding in that industry is indeed anti-competitive, and potentially illegal. There’s potential merit here in businesses coordinating with each other on who to blacklist withing the industry, which is why lawyers were willing to take on the case.
Ultimately, it’s a question for a judge whether they’re doing this for the purpose of suppressing competition, somehow, or whether they’re doing it for valid business reasons (like, say, avoiding a company with a history of not paying its bills, or avoiding a company with a history of sabotaging business relationships, or avoiding a company that their own customers actively hate, and would lose them business).
Of course, with the courts the way they are these days, I’m not holding my breath for the obviously-sensible ruling.
The problem with that is companies who advertise with X and X themselves are not in the same industry. That’s like saying if I had a hardware store who advertises with a newspaper, that means my hardware store is in the same business as the newspaper. What?
As far as “why lawyers were willing to take on the case” I’d guess it’s because they’re going to rake in huge fees regardless of the outcome.