Is Google Bad ... or Wicked Good?
&Nbsp; ) acquisition of rival Wild Oats on antitrust grounds, I seriously wondered whether FTC regulators actually resided on a different planet. The situation simply made no sense in a real-world context.Even with Whole Foods' acquisition of Wild Oats, consumers still have plenty of options for buying organic and natural foods, including private companies like Trader Joe's, Safeway ( ; in fact, it takes fewer key strokes to go Bing something. Google's argument that competition "is only one click away" sounds solid to me.
Google isn't a perfect company -- I give much greater credence to privacy concerns about its trove of user data. But I still contend that its positive attributes far outweigh negative ones. The FTC seems to be punishing this company for having a good search product that people choose to use, not protecting users from one market player that forces everyone into its service because there are no other choices. There's nothing evil about having a wicked good product.
Let me know your thoughts on Google's good or evil nature in the comments box below, or participate in my Foolish colleague Tim Beyers' poll: " Does Google Need to Be Broken Up? "
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Whole Foods Ftc - News
"Abuse" sounds pretty evil -- until you remember that the FTC has gotten this sort of thing wrong before. In 2007, when it tried to block Whole Foods Market's (Nasdaq: WFM ) acquisition of rival Wild Oats on antitrust grounds, I seriously wondered
Parents still make the ultimate decision about what foods are brought into the home, regardless of what any TV cartoon character says. According to the FTC's report, marketing to kids can be identified if 20 to 30 percent of the market is under 17
David Vladeck, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, attempted to assuage concerns by posting on the FTC website that there are no legal consequences for failing to comply with the new standards. “Nobody's saying Toucan Sam has to fly
In fact, the FTC Act explicitly forbids the Commission from issuing a rule restricting food advertising to children. So the FTC couldn't issue a rule on this subject if it wanted to, which it doesn't. Got that Big Food? FTC not only can't regulate you,
While not as strict as what the government is considering, the industry-designed limits won praise from FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. The government lays out two standards for foods marketed to children that companies should meet by 2016.
More on Whole Foods and the FTC « Brand Autopsy
I’m still struggling to find the logic behind the FTC’s decision to block the merger between Whole Foods Market (WFM) and Wild Oats. Everything I’ve read says WFM faces a major battle to convince the FTC that this merger promotes healthy competition within the grocery marketplace. One analyst gives this merger only a 10% chance of being approved.
If this deal doesn’t go through, then who will step forward to purchase Wild Oats? WFM has exposed Wild Oats as an under-performing retailer with sales per square foot about half of what WFM generates. Without a buyer, Wild Oats will probably not be able to go it alone and survive with the likes of Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Publix, Vons, Kroger, and Wal-Mart as competition. (Hmm… I wonder what the FTC would say if Kroger were to step forward and acquire Wild Oats?)
“Whole Foods and Wild Oats may view themselves as operating in a different world than Wal-Mart. But their self-characterization is largely irrelevant. What matters is whether customers who shop at Whole Foods would shop elsewhere for substitute products if Whole Foods prices rose too much. The implicit notion that the availability of organic foods at Wal-Mart (to say nothing of pretty much every other grocery store in the US today!) exerts little or no competitive pressure on prices at Whole Foods seems facially silly. • Depending on how it is calculated, a merger of Whole Foods and Wild Oats would account for 11 percent or more of the total organics market. That still leaves the vast majority of the market to the supermarkets, other natural and organic food grocers, farmers markets and online retailers. Wal-Mart Stores said it planned to have 400 organic products to sell by the end of 2006.
• About half of organic food sales in 2005 included traditional supermarkets, according to the Organic Trade Association. Since 2002, the entire natural and organic business has grown about 65 percent, from $15.9 billion to about $26 billion in sales in 2006, according to the Nutrition Business Journal.
• Whole Foods, which had $5.6 billion in sales in 2006, is now seen as a grocery industry heavyweight, competing with the big players such as $351 billion retail giant Wal-Mart.
• “As virtually all supermarkets now sell organic and natural products, we are surprised that the FTC appears to be narrowly defining the relevant antitrust market as only including natural and organic food stores,” [Morgan Stanley analyst Mark] Wiltamuth wrote.
Whole Foods Ftc - Bookshelf
Worldwide Merger Notification Requirements
Raising Questions as to Reducing Standards for the FTC in Merger Challenges: FTC v. Whole Foods Noah A. Brumfield and Daniel Kanter INTRODUCTION On July 29, ...Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments, 2007
6 Whole Foods closed the transaction shortly after the district court's ruling. 27 The FTC appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals for the District of ...Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments 2008
FTC v. Whole Foods Mkt., 533 F.3d 869, 882 (DC Cir. 2008). 44. FTC v. ... FTC v. Whole Foods Mkt., 502 F. Supp. 2d 1 , 35 (DDC 2007). 47. Whole Foods Mkt ...2009 Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments
Whole Foods Market, m the FTC lifted the stay it had imposed on its parallel Part ... Whole Foods filed an action in district court alleging that the FTC's ...The A-Z Encyclopedia of Food Controversies and the Law [2 Volumes]
In 2009 Whole Foods reached a settlement with the FTC. It will sell 31 of the Wild Oats stores. These stores are located in 12 states. Whole Foods has also ...Casual Knowledge Directory
FTC Seeks Public Comments on Two More Proposed Whole Foods ...
FTC Seeks Public Comments on Two More Proposed Whole Foods Divestitures ... Copies of the petitions can be found on the FTC's Web site and as a link to this press release. ...
FTC Seeks to Block Whole Foods Market's Acquisition of Wild ...
FTC Seeks to Block Whole Foods Market's Acquisition of Wild Oats Markets ... After the merger, Whole Foods likely would be able to raise prices unilaterally, to the ...
Texas Lawyer - Ingredients in the Whole Foods, FTC Settlement
Home " This Week"s Issue " Ingredients in the Whole Foods, FTC Settlement ... Whole Foods points out that the merger survived; it wasn't forced to unscramble all the eggs. ...
Fort Collins | WholeFoodsMarket.com
Whole Foods Market is the world's largest retailer of natural and organic foods, with stores throughout North America and the United Kingdom
Whole Foods, FTC settle on Wild Oats merger | Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Premium organic grocer Whole Foods Market Inc <WFMI.O> has settled an antitrust battle with U.S. regulators by agreeing to sell the Wild Oats ...