• agent_flounder@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    8 months ago

    I don’t feel your analogy quite captures what is going on here because both McDonald’s and Taco Bell are in the same business. Maybe if you explain it more.

    Google owns a major web destination, YouTube, essentially a line of business in its own right, in addition to Chrome, also its own distinct product. Firefox competes with Chrome but Google is allegedly using market dominance with YouTube to make it harder for Firefox to compete.

    If a company owns two products A and B and if A is used to access B, company cannot hinder competitors to A via fuckery in B.

    This is the kind of thing that MS got in trouble for – using Windows to tip the scales in favor of Internet Explorer by tightly integrating it into the OS.

    McDonald’s prohibiting people from using their restaurant, which is not itself a separate product with a separate market. Nobody is clamoring to go to McDonald’s restaurant spaces to sit and eat. It’s just part of the restaurant offering. So there is no leverage like there is with YouTube being used against a competitor for a totally different product. And besides, Taco Bell can do the same as McDonald’s. They’re on equal footing.

    If in your analogy there were some other product that McDonald’s owned that could penalize you for going to Taco Bell your analogy would work.

    • Google – Ford
    • Mozilla – Chevy
    • Firefox – Chevy car
    • Chrome – Ford Car
    • YouTube – Ford gas station