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Youtube has started to artificially slow down video load times if you use Firefox. Spoofing Chrome magically makes this problem go away. (old.reddit.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 210 points 2 years ago (6 children)

I wonder how long it'll be before google gets sued for their anti-competitive behavior.

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  • [–] 114 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Oh I imagine the papers are being filed as we speak, because this is blatantly illegal.

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  • [–] 36 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Well you typically need standing in order to file a lawsuit, who would do it? Mozilla are probably the only ones. Why would this cause them to do it when past similar practices haven’t?

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  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Perhaps YouTube premium subscribers would have standing as a class action, since Google is materially worsening the experience of a paid product if you don’t use their browser

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I personally don’t think an argument like that would hold up. A company making its service worse in itself isn’t going to win court cases, and this is hardly the worst example of a tech company making its products worse unless you use more of their software.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    Perhaps not, but it’s not just the act of making the service worse, it’s doing so measurably to paying customers ONLY when using a competitors product. With those caveats, I think you could at least argue standing. Winning is a whole other battle.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Users affected by it, Mozilla, any other company that comes to support Mozilla, watchdog groups like the EFF...

    It can also be brought by attorneys general and governmental regulators, the FCC and FTC might have a bit to say about it...

    Antitrust suits aren't civil cases, I don't think, so "having standing" is a bit different

    I'm not a lawyer though so I could be way off base, but the antitrust cases I've been aware of I don't think they were brought by companies but by government agencies

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Isn't Mozilla a non profit? I don't they can sue for anything along the lines of hurting profits to the company.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    What law are they breaking? Not trying to defend Google or anything, just curious what law is blatantly being broken here because I don't know of one

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    It's an anti competition law, they cannot penalize you for using a competitor service. This would be like getting fined by McDonald's because I went to Taco Bell.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Blatantly anticompetitive behavior where you (ab)use your dominance in one sector (i.e. YouTube) to choke out competition in another (i.e. make it slow on competing browsers) is illegal in the US and the EU, at the very least. I don't know the specific laws or acts in play, but that's the sort of thing that triggers antitrust lawsuits

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago

    It is being currently being sued by Epic Games for Anti-Trust behavior. Google offered millions of dollars to Epic so that Fortnite would be available in the Play Store and not in Epic's own store.

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