Google's Anti-Competitive and Unfair Practices in Digital Leisure Markets
The purpose of this article is to reflect on the critical use of commitments in the Google case and to analyse and review the matrix of facts that have been highlighted in the academic and practitioner literature. Therefore, the core area of reflection in this contribution are relevant markets; barriers to entry; network and lock-in effects; dominance; and potential anti-competitive, as well as unfair practices as regards commercial advertisements. The analysis of the online search-engine market is complemented by the comparative insights offered by the US class action against Google’s Android mobile applications. In the EU, a similar trend is noticeable in the complaining tone of Google’s competitors. Coupled with the transitional period of the mandate of the newly appointed Commissioner for Competition and the political sensitivity over the potential to misuse search-engine users’ personal data to serve commercial purposes, such as boosting its advertising revenues, the giant Google swims in uncertain waters.
Global Platform Dominance: Abusive or Competition on the Merits?
This article challenges the mainstream position that dominant online platforms compete solely on their own merits and that their misuse of data should fall under data or privacy laws. Thus, a critically constructive narrative will compare recent cases and investigations involving Google, Facebook, and Amazon in several pro-active jurisdictions in the European Union, Germany, and India and in less interventionist jurisdictions such as the US, Canada, and the UK. The jurisdictional divide in dealing with global platform dominance will expose the convergence built upon a common ground approach to online dominance and the dissent from the former. This article argues that global platform competition has not been established on merit alone but has strengthened global platform dominance through the misuse of a large-scale combination of individuals’ data.
Second-Generation Process Research Towards Eletriptan: A Fischer Indole Approach
The development of a second-generation process for the synthesis of eletriptan via a Fischer indole cyclisation is described. The finalised process offers several potential advantages over the current route of manufacture including cost, throughput, and safety.