Broadcom Charged By FTC of Illegal Monopolization, Agrees To Settlement

phalse phace shares a report from The Wall Street Journal: The Federal Trade Commission and Broadcom have agreed to settle charges that the company used its dominance in some chip markets to squeeze out potential rivals (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source). The FTC on Friday said that under a proposed consent order, Broadcom must stop requiring its customers to source three types of chips from the company on an exclusive or near-exclusive basis. The FTC said that Broadcom maintained its power in certain markets by entering long-term exclusive or near-exclusive agreements with at least 10 original equipment manufacturers of set-top boxes and broadband devices and service providers that prevented them from purchasing chips from Broadcom's competitors. The behavior, the FTC alleges, began as early as 2016. In one example of Broadcom's allegedly anticompetitive behavior, the FTC said the company threatened that if a service provider didn't limit purchases from its rivals, Broadcom would raise the price it charges the customer for software services.

Uh huh

[wakeboarder]

and amazon skips off scott free

Re:

[Areyoukiddingme]

and amazon skips off scott free

Amazon had 9.2% of addressable retail sales in the United States in 2021. Walmart had 9.5%. And Amazon's share is only that high because of the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, they had 6.8% of addressable retail.

Amazon occupies drastically more of your mindspace than it does retail space. Most people buy most things from somewhere else.

You sure wish I could regularly break the law

[rsilvergun]

Such that I made a hefty profit doing so and then pay a minor fee or fine that is less than 10% of the profit that I earned committing the crime.

Re:

[kot-begemot-uk]

Not just that. It also made a whole raft of acquisitions during that period despite being a competition concern.

Re:

[Canberra1]

What a joke. A slap with a tissue. There should have been a permanent injunction on ALL restrictive agreements and disclosure of others they don't yet know about. There should be public disclosure on past price discrimination. There should be a fine for software/driver bundling. If they raked off a percentage on the final value of the product, all that money should be refunded. As others have pointed out, the proposed settlement leaves them in net profit, rather than triple damages. The exclusive contracts

Perhaps the time has come.

[Gravis Zero]

I'm tired of these dishonest executives and I can't help but wonder if it's time we just start making the punishment for them a good old fashion stoning. I'm almost convinced Jesus would say, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." throw one in a guys face and then say, "OK, now everyone else!"

Re:Perhaps the time has come.

[PolygamousRanchKid]

I'm almost convinced Jesus would say, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

A stone hits Jesus on the head, and he screams, "That's not funny, Mom!"

Re:

[drinkypoo]

We don't need that, and we can't have it anyway.

All we need is for fines to exceed profits, and we can't even manage that.

Would it warm my heart to see some of these corrupt CEOs assassinated? Sure. But I don't think it would solve the problem, because just like any kind of criminal there would always be those who don't believe it can happen to them.

I hate Broadcom but I use their stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

All of my phones, all of my routers, my Raspberry Pi's, they all use proprietary Broadcom stuff and I hate it but there isn't a lot of choice available. As part of this deal they should have been forced to open-source their drivers. That would go a long way towards reducing the hate.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

It would help but I find a lot of broadcom stuff is supported anyway, what you really need for freedom is for them to have to open source the firmwares and you're not getting that for standards compliance reasons (making it too easy to exceed tx power limits etc)

The difference between Qualcomm and Broadcom

[anonimouser]

In trying to analyze the difference between Broadcom which settled and Qualcomm which took it to the end ... Qualcomm is a US company and Broadcom not?

RIAA sue

[jmccue]

I thought if you were playing music for the public to hear, you are in violation of laws RIAA forced through and can be sued.

So, RIAA, when will you sue this officer ?

Re:

[jmccue]

CRAP Wrong /. thread (I have many windows open)

re

[brianrancourt1]

Well my experience is different, glad to see this article. And I don't think it's important enough to mandate in-person learning, and/or schools are not the exclusive domain for socialization. https://proessays.org/ [proessays.org]