I'll believe it when I see it. What are the actual remedies going to be? More piddly payouts that net each customer 57 cents?
The penalties for monopolies need to be RUINOUS. The sword of Damocles should be hanging over every company and every individual with decision-making power at every company.
I'm tired of all the proverbial wrist-slapping. It's the cost of doing business. Let a wronged consumer give a monopolist CEO some physical wrist-slapping, on a public channel. Perhaps then it has a bigger chance of stopping.
I actually think - the reward for reporting a monopoly and providing evidence- should be the allowance to take part of that company and run with it. As in - i report on solid evidence that google is a monopoly. Fine- have AddSense and run with it, or take youtube. Like the whistle blowing becomes a company founding event. The shareholders in a ex-monopoly get to choose which new horse too back.
The thrust-busting state entity , should only be involved as a peripheral rubber-stamping agency of the legality of the process and as evaluators of the solidity of the evidence. The falling to pieces and becoming fresh competitors should feel natural.
Law is slow and gradual. I'm not sure if States can break up companies, but these build undeniable precedent for when the feds get around to suing. So I wouldn't underestimate these cases just because they aren't the case that will be remembered in history
The penalties for monopolies need to be RUINOUS. The sword of Damocles should be hanging over every company and every individual with decision-making power at every company.