this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works -2 points 5 months ago (10 children)

Pointing out which meaning applies is how definitions work. One is enough.

Cherry-picking is highlighting part of a paragraph, and ignoring that it begins: As a first step, courts ask if the firm has “monopoly power” in any market. The documents you picked are telling you, being a monopoly and doing harm are separate questions. The ability comes first, and that ability comes directly from market dominance.

Epic is LITERALLY excluding competitors right now for a bunch of titles

... a monopoly is not about who carries one specific game. It's about the market. The market you know Steam dominates.

When Steam excludes a game, for any reason, that game usually sells a lot less. Orders of magnitude, sometimes. That is the power they wield over all games, as a game market. The fact they don't abuse it is a defense against legal action - but we're discussing legal actions that can only apply to monopolies. Determining whether they have that power comes first.

Those sales figures do not respond to price changes, either. Epic can offer whatever sale they like - for most sales, the price on Steam is the price. Y'know. Like in the definition I pointed out. The one that is the way that things are.

The dev CHOSE to launch on a shittier platform

'Poor sales are your own fault for not selling through the one store that matters,' says monopoly understander.

By your logic

Nothing sensible ever follows these words.

[–] DarthYoshiBoy@kbin.social 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (5 children)

Pointing out which meaning applies is how definitions work. One is enough.

So which is it? Because the only one that might apply is the last and that one has a complicated legal meaning that is multiple parts of which you only seem to care about a single part: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monopoly

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works -1 points 5 months ago (4 children)

It's the definition given by your own fucking source. The one you called "cherry-picking."

It's not "a single prong in a standard that has several," there's a list of meanings, and one of them applies.

That page even reminds you: not all monopolies are illegal. Maybe you should re-read it?

[–] DarthYoshiBoy@kbin.social 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Here, it's easy:

Then courts ask if that leading position was gained or maintained through improper conduct—that is, something other than merely having a better product, superior management or historic accident.

Does not in fact say:

Then courts ask if that monopoly was gained or maintained through improper conduct—that is, something other than merely having a better product, superior management or historic accident.

The standard has multiple prongs. You might have "monopoly power" without in fact being a monopoly because being a monopoly requires meeting a legal standard where being the in the leading position of a market is not the singular qualifier.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You're quoting a sentence that defines anticompetitive practices, not a sentence that defines a monopoly.

Here is a sentence from the same page that defines a monopoly:

Courts do not require a literal monopoly before applying rules for single firm conduct; that term is used as shorthand for a firm with significant and durable market power — that is, the long term ability to raise price or exclude competitors.

[–] DarthYoshiBoy@kbin.social 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

the long term ability to raise price or exclude competitors.

Which you seem to take for a granted, but won't provide even a theoretical for how that might have happened here?

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works -1 points 5 months ago

Ability means "they can," not "they did."

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