Current News. Our primary focus is on consumer and antitrust issues where local action in support of consumers can be relevant and effective. To offer comments, or receive our weekly newsletter, contact the editor at  donresnikoffdonresnikofflaw. Paul Alan Levy on bogus Homeland Security summons seeking to identify the owners of a Twitter account  hostile to the government agency. Posted 2. 1 Nov 2. By Paul Alan LevyLast spring, Twitter received a fair amount of attention for fighting a patently bogus attempt by the Department of Homeland Security to abuse its statutory authority to investigate the importation of goods as the basis for to issuing an administrative summons seeking to identify the owners of a Twitter account  hostile to the new leadership of the U. News and opinion from The Times The Sunday Times. Archives and past articles from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly. Computerworld covers a wide range of technology topics, including software, security, operating systems, mobile, storage, servers and data centers, emerging tech, and. S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Twitter sued to block the summons, and the government withdrew it, mooting the litigation. In response to a senatorial inquiry, the responsible agency Customs and Border Protection apparently tried to hide behind the DHS Inspector General, implying that the summons related to an OIG investigation of whether CPB staff were undermining their new president. The DHS Inspector General publicly repudiated that move, noting archly that OIG carefully considers First Amendment ramifications we strive. CBP had misbehaved in issuing the summons. Tata_Consultancy_Services_Logo.svg/1200px-Tata_Consultancy_Services_Logo.svg.png' alt='Business Software Firms Sued Over Implementation Timeline' title='Business Software Firms Sued Over Implementation Timeline' />Late last week, the DHS OIG released a report condemning the summons as being impermissible under the statute. The report indicates that, in retrospect, Customs and Border Protection admitted that its staff have been taking an overbroad view of how they can use the summons procedure, and agreed to issue a new manual, to institute a new review process, and to provide training to ensure that such abuses are not repeated. From http pubcit. Walmart pulls back on aggressive online pricing, reducing competitive pressure on Amazon. Press reports suggest that Walmart has retreated from aggressive online pricing against major rival Amazon. Walmart has worked hard to gain a position in on line sales that rivals Amazon. In October, industry observer Nat Levy wrote that Walmart has dropped some serious cash on deals to help grow the companys online presence. It started with Jet. Walmart bought for 3. Walmart has invested heavily in logistics and delivery as one of the primary fronts in its battle against Amazon. At the end of January, Walmart introduced free two day shipping on millions of items for orders over 3. Walmart.   In its fourth quarter and year end earnings report, Walmart said online sales increased 2. U. S. and 1. 5. 5 percent globally. Walmart does not release dollar figures for e commerce sales. Business Software Firms Sued Over Implementation Timeline' title='Business Software Firms Sued Over Implementation Timeline' />According to the Geekwire article, Jet. Founder and CEO Marc Lore, who is leading Walmarts U. S. e commerce effort, commented earlier this year that  Were moving with speed to become more of a digital enterprise and better serve customers. Doug Mc. Millon, president and CEO of Walmart, said in an earlier  statement that Walmart has become the second largest online retailer by revenue and among the top three by traffic. But recently the Wall Street Journal reported that  Walmart is experimenting with a new system, which has at times resulted in higher web prices for goods that would otherwise be unprofitable to ship. In some cases, product listings on walmart. Often the online price is now higher than the in store price and matches Amazon. Formerly, online and in store prices were generally the same. We always work to offer the best price online relative to other sites, a Wal Mart spokeswoman said to the Wall Street Journal. Different comparison shoppers may disagree on whether Walmart was previously competing aggressively with Amazon on online prices, but some commenters found aggressive competition  In this price comparison, Walmart. Amazon was the best bargain in two cases. The retailers surprisingly had the same price on one third of the products I compared. When I added up the total for all 1. Walmart was the big winner 1. Amazonhttp clark. So what explains the Walmart decision to raise prices and be a less aggressive competitor to Amazon in the realm of on line pricing  The frequently stated Walmart explanation is that it wants to drive customers to its  brick and mortar stores. This article presents a timeline of events in the history of x86 DOS operating systems from 1973 to 2016. Other operating systems named DOS are generally not part. So here is the widely known RH short thesis in a nutshell RH sells very high end i. Get the latest breaking news across the U. S. on ABCNews. com. Oracle Fusion Middleware is a family of middleware software products, including for instance application server, system integration, business process management. Business Software Firms Sued Over Implementation Timeline' title='Business Software Firms Sued Over Implementation Timeline' />Another idea may be suggested by Tim Wus brief New Yorker article published a few years ago, which talks about the need for renewed antitrust attention for industries with a relatively few large players that coordinate in ways that have anticompetitive effects, but escape usual enforcement approaches. Tim Wu authored a companion scholarly article written with Scott Hemphill. The New Yorker article is at  http www. The scholarly paper, called Parallel Exclusion,  can be found at http papers. It  discusses in greater detail some cases where a few large companies act in ways that are cooperative and anticompetitive, but without the explicit contractual offer and acceptance to pursue a conspiracy that facilitates a court finding of antitrust wrongdoing. Of course, the WalmartAmazon story can be looked at as simply about price. We might ask whether we are seeing tacit collusion on price, and whether, as Tim Wu and others have suggested, an antitrust problem should be found despite lack of explicit contractual offer and acceptance to pursue a conspiracy that facilitates a court finding of antitrust wrongdoing. Judge Posner threw cold water on litigation raising antitrust concerns about tacit collusion on price when he wrote in a 2. We can. expect competing firms to keep close track of each others pricing and other market behavior and often to find it in their self interest to imitate that behavior rather than try to undermine itthe latter being a risky strategy, prone to invite retaliation. That behavior is consistent with independent parallel behavior. Sherman Act. Collusion is illegal only when based on agreement. IN RE TEXT MESSAGING ANTITRUST LITIGATION. Aircraft Check Services Co., et al., individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, PlaintiffsAppellants, v. Verizon Wireless, et al., DefendantsAppellees. F. 3d 8. 67 7 Cir, 2. Find on line at https h. This comment is posted by Don Allen Resnikoff, who is solely responsible for its contentFROM COVINGTON BURLING LLPFTC Seeks Comment on Petition to Modify 2. Sears Order Concerning Online Browsing Tracking. By  Calvin Cohen on November 1. The Federal Trade Commission FTC is soliciting public comments on a petition filed by Sears Holdings Management Sears to reopen and modify a 2. FTC order regarding the tracking of personal information on their software apps. The petition is notable for a number of reasons. First, the Sears consent order was a seminal order in the development of the FTCs privacy jurisdiction, standing for the proposition that a company cannot bury disclosures that consumers would not expect in long privacy notices. Second, the concept of modifying 2. Third, the petition seeks to correct the unintended consequences that a consent order can have on future technologies when such an order regulates present ones. Get Active Window Handle Mfc more. In the 2. 00. 9 FTC order, Sears settled charges that it failed to disclose adequately the scope of consumers personal information it collected via a downloadable software app. As part of that 2.