Forum - View topic

NEWS: ADV Files 3rd-Party Claim in Funimation's Lawsuit

Okay a lot of people seem to have some confusion about anti-trust lawsuits and the term monopoly. First of all, ADV says that Funi is attempting to become or may be dangerously close to becoming a monopoly. It never claims that there is no other competition in the North American anime market. Having competition, no matter how much smaller, does not preclude a company from being considered a defacto monopoly.

For examples, Apple has close to 80% of the mp3 market, and Microsoft has around 90% of the desktop operating system market. Both are basically considered monopolies in those areas, even though they both have a number of competitors in them. Being a monopoly in of itself is not technically illegal. It's the business practices that one uses to get there that can cause trouble. For instance, Microsoft got into a lot of hot water when it appeared they used the OS dominance to drive Netscape out of business and promote Internet Explorer. Apple is still facing lawsuits over the fact that iTunes DRM is not licensed to other manufacturers.

ADV is claiming that Funimation has used illegal business practices, such as conspiring with business partners and obtaining confidential information about ADV from them, to obtain more market share in North America. Even if they didn't obtain a monopoly as a result, that could still be illegal.

Honestly, there is no point in anybody getting worked up over it at this point. On the bright side, it's probably more likely that both sides will come to some sort of settlement, as a federal anti-trust lawsuit will drag on for years and cost a ton of money for both of them.