I think what they are alleging is that Google, seeing a competing service on the rise, rocketed up the ad rates on whatever key words TradeComet was buying to make it prohibitively expensive for them to acquire business via Google. From my semi-literate understanding of anti-trust law, they will need to prove that Google acted in an anti-competitive manner, and that their actions harmed consumers. I think they will need to prove intent- that Google specifically intended to wipe out TradeComet's ability to buy ads by jacking up rates beyond what their normal keyword auction system would have provided. If they can prove that point, I think they have a good shot at winning the case, although the "harm to consumers" component will be tougher to demonstrate.
What would be interesting is if they could show that Google rigged the keyword auction system, that opens up all kinds of legal hell for Google, regardless of the outcome of this case. On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Judah M wrote: > > I'm a little confused about what the company is alleging. Wouldn't > TradeComet be selling ad space on its search engine? Are they claiming > that they got put out of business because it was too expensive for > them to advertise on Google? If so I'm not sure how that's exactly an > anti-trust issue. I don't think you can tell Google that they have to > let a competing ad network advertise on its ad network. Now if Google > told its advertisers that their rates would go up if they advertised > on TradeComet as well then they would definitely have a case. > > That article made it sound like Google just told TradeComet that > advertising their search service on Google Ads would be expensive > which seems pretty reasonable to me. Perhaps I misunderstood. > > Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:289112 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
