#antitrust

#antitrust

In a motion filed on Wednesday, the plaintiffs' counsel wrote that NAR's decision to change its MLS policies was essentially NAR admitting that those requirements are a violation of antitrust law. This admission is critical to the issues raised by Plaintiffs in their complaint and rebut the Defendants' arguments that the previous policy of the NAR requiring membership in its organization in order for brokers and agents to access the MLS did not violate antitrust law and were not wrongful, the filing states.

Portland City Council voted Wednesday night to adopt Councilor Angelita Morillo's proposed AI rental price-fixing ban, with eight councilors in support. In addition to co-sponsors Green, and Koyama Lane, the ordinance was approved by Councilors Dunphy, Avalos, Kanal, Loretta Smith, and Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney. Clark and Ryan voted no, and Councilors Steve Novick and Eric Zimmerman were absent. After months of uncertainty, a policy to ban the sale or use of algorithmic rental price-fixing software in Portland is back on the table.

Oregon's attorney general says the software allows landlords to "coordinate rent increases rather than competing independently."

Real estate's biggest turf war is playing out this week in a Manhattan courtroom, where a federal judge must decide if the so-called "Zillow ban" is fair. Compass, the nation's largest real estate brokerage by sales volume, is fighting the ban, under which Zillow excludes home listings from its site and penalizes brokers when properties were previously listed as private "exclusives" elsewhere.

A yearslong fight between the Federal Trade Commission and Meta, which dates back to when it was still called Facebook, has ended with Meta prevailing, and a federal judge declaring that the company likely does not hold a monopoly in the social media sphere anymore.

Idealo pursued legal action against Google, claiming that the Alphabet subsidiary was "self-preferencing" its own platforms, which led to unfair market advantages that hindered competitors. The company first demanded at least 3.3 billion euros, or more than $3.8 billion, in damages in February 2025. To counter, Google said it made changes in 2017 that allowed competing shopping platforms the same opportunity as Google Shopping to display ads through Google Search.

A cancer patient might live in a town with four oncology groups, but only one accepts his insurance the one owned by his insurer. A young couple could see huge bills after their child is born, because their insurer agreed to the health system's rates in exchange for a contract with obstetricians across the country. A woman might have to pay a big sum she can't afford for basic lab tests at a hospital

If the parties fail to engage in discovery due to pending settlement negotiations, the court said that this will not be grounds for continuance of the trial date. Judge Moore's order did not specify if the trial was set to be a jury trial or a non-jury trial. The lawsuit was originally filed in late April 2024 against HomeServices of America and its subsidiaries, BHH Affiliates and HSF Affiliates.

We need to take a deep breath and understand it's like a meteor coming,

Since launching Google Play (née Android Market) in 2008, Google has never made a change to the US store that it didn't want to make-until now. Having lost the antitrust case brought by Epic Games, Google has implemented the first phase of changes mandated by the court. Developers operating in the Play Store will have more freedom to direct app users to resources outside the Google bubble. However, Google has not given up hope of reversing its loss before it's forced to make bigger changes.

Sometimes a term is so apt, its meaning so clear and so relevant to our circumstances, that it becomes more than just a useful buzzword and grows to define an entire moment," the columnist Kyle Chayka writes, in a review of Cory Doctorow's book "Enshittification.

In May 2021, Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency (ATT), a privacy feature that lets users choose whether apps can track their activity across other companies' apps and websites for advertising or data-sharing purposes. Following the rollout of the feature, cross-app and cross-site tracking declined sharply, with at least one study reporting a 54.7% drop in tracking rates in the United States alone.

Apple has abused its dominant position by charging app developers unfair commissions, a London tribunal has ruled, in a blow that could leave the United States tech company on the hook for hundreds of millions of pounds in damages. On Thursday, the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled against Apple after a trial of the lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of millions of iPhone and iPad users in the United Kingdom.