Competition law

Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, won a major US court battle against Google on Monday when a jury decided that the search engine giant wields illegal monopoly power through its Android app store.

Epic sued Google and Apple in 2020, accusing the tech titans of abusing control of their respective shops selling apps and other digital content on mobile devices.

The European Union announced yesterday that it opened a formal antitrust investigation targeting Microsoft into the software company's Teams messaging and videoconferencing app over concerns that its bundling with its Office productivity software suites gives it an unfair edge over competitors.

An EU court on Jan. 26 annulled a 1.06 billion euro ($1.2 billion) fine against U.S. chipmaker Intel, finding that Brussels had failed to adequately prove anti-competitive practices in a key aspect of the case, a statement said.

The Turkish Competition Authority on Oct. 11 decided to open an investigation into e-commerce firm Trendyol, backed by Chinese internet giant Alibaba, on whether the company violated the country's competition laws.

A preliminary inquiry over Trendyol's violating the country's law on the protection of the competition has been concluded, the competition board said in a statement.

Brussels – The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Slovenian maker of prefabricated construction elements Trimo by the Irish Kingspan Group. It is concerned that the transaction may reduce competition and lead to price increases.

BY ZEPOS & YANNOPOULOS

Draft EU rules to be unveiled on Dec. 15 would see tech giants face huge fines or banned from the market for breaches, sources said, posing a major challenge to the likes of Google and Facebook.

The European Commission has approved a BGN 1.5 billion (approximately €770 million) Bulgarian wage subsidies support scheme for preserving employment in the sectors most affected by the confinement measures put in place due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Forty-seven U.S. Attorneys General are launching a joint antitrust investigation against the leading social networking site Facebook (Facebook Inc.).

High-tech Internet companies will be investigated on suspicion of monopoly and anti-competitive oppression by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). According to the newspaper Wall Street Journal, Google, Amazon and Apple will be scrutinized.