A unanimous ruling by the Federal Trade Commission today would update truth-in-advertising language to require the disclosure of “material connections”—hint, hint “cash or an in-kind payment to review a product”—by the recipient of such considerations. More »
The Federal Trade Commission, it seems, has determined that bloggers aren’t journalists, or should at least be treated differently. More »
The alleged practice of GameStop lending new copies of games to employees at their stores and then later selling those games as new, unused copies, may be a violation of federal law.
Electronic Arts has issued a statement this morning announcing that they have received a second request for information from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission regarding their proposed takeover of Take Two Interactive. Seems the FTC still isn’t convinced that the joining of the two companies wouldn’t be anti-competitive. While EA believes that its proposed transaction with Take-Two would not be anti-competitive, the FTC has not yet reached any conclusions regarding the proposed acquisition and has indicated that it needs further information and additional time to conduct its review.
No matter what the shareholders and company executives wind up deciding to do, it all comes down to the FTC. EA is already big. It’s up to the FTC to determine if acquiring Take-Two would make them too big for the competition. It’s not likely the sale would be blocked, but those FTC officials are real sticklers about having their paperwork in order.
