tagged w/ Price Fixing
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I'll state straight away, I hate/loathe/despise/abhor Monsanto. They are evil, not metaphorically evil, but actually evil. And as for our politicians who should have protected us from Monsanto; well, there’s a special circle of Hell reserved just for them.
I came across this video in the twitterverse and wanted to share it because it gives you a good idea of what is involved in actually using GM seed and the (hoocoodanode!?) consequences. Farmer to Farmer.
I ask you: What do we do to extricate ourselves from this politico-corporate nightmare?I'll state straight away, I hate/loathe/despise/abhor Monsanto. They are evil,... more
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Yesterday, consumer groups called for government agencies to investigate TV Everywhere -- a new scheme that would require Internet users to pay for a cable TV subscription if they want to watch popular shows online. As detailed in a new report issued on Monday, from the public record, TV Everywhere appears to be the product of collusion between major programmers and the big cable, satellite and phone companies to keep content off the Internet.
Spearheaded by Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the TV Everywhere initiative appears to be built on cable operators (and other distributors) agreeing to work together to pressure content providers to make their content available on the Internet only to viewers that have paid for a cable TV subscription in addition to an Internet connection. Thus, TV Everywhere ties online TV distribution to the existing cable, phone, and satellite distributors' TV subscriptions. (I refer to all these as "cable," for brevity.) Citing news reports, statements by industry executives and other evidence, the consumer groups argue there is enough evidence of collusion and other harms to warrant a full-scale investigation by the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission into the scheme. (Docs here; Huffpo post here.)
Unsurprisingly, the cable industry didn't welcome this critique of their plans. The head of the cable industry lobbying association (known as NCTA), Kyle McSlarrow, responded with a statement. McSlarrow is an effective lobbyist, but his response misses the mark.
His key argument is that TV Everywhere consists of collaboration, not collusion. He notes that the antitrust authorities encourage collaboration sometimes even among competitors, for the sake of innovation and other benefits. McSlarrow has a point that some collaboration is not presumed to be anti-competitive; indeed, the FTC and DOJ have issued guidelines on collaboration among competitors.
But the types of "collaboration" generally found not to harm competition and to further innovation are very different from TV Everywhere. Collaborations of some types are considered "per se," or automatically, illegal because they replace the competitive marketplace driving low prices, choice, and innovation with an agreement among incumbents effectively not to engage in competition with one another in certain ways.
Simply put, some forms of collaboration are clearly illegal and anti-competitive. These agreements include price-fixing and market allocation. TV Everywhere should be investigated because evidence suggests it includes both price-fixing and allocation.Yesterday, consumer groups called for government agencies to investigate TV Everywhere... more
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"A $125 million settlement has been announced in a major class action lawsuit involving members of the Prescription Access Litigation (PAL) coalition. The case, In re Pharmaceutical Industry Average Wholesale Price Litigation, was originally filed in 2002, and claimed that the defendant drug companies intentionally inflated reports of the Average Wholesale Prices (AWPs) on certain prescription drugs administered in doctors’ offices and paid for by Medicare Part B."
"The settlement includes branded and generic drugs used primarily in the treatment of cancer, HIV and other serious illnesses. Under the terms of the settlement 82.5 percent of the settlement fund is designated for third-party payors’ claims and the remaining 17.5 percent is designated for consumer claims."
So Big Pharma apparently thinks that cancer and HIV treatments aren't profitable enough. I thought that tricking people into thinking that they had imaginary illnesses by showing deceptive advertisements had put enough extra notches in their belt. I guess I was wrong."A $125 million settlement has been announced in a major class action lawsuit... more
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