Standard Oil only ever controlled 85% of America’s oil.
Monopoly is when your competition does not matter - not when it does not exist. There will always be someone competing with you. But if I open Mindbleach’s Video Emporium and move six units per quarter, the impact on Steam is approximately dick.
Courts do not require a literal monopoly before applying rules for single firm conduct; that term is used as shorthand for a firm with significant and durable market power — that is, the long term ability to raise price or exclude competitors. That is how that term is used here: a “monopolist” is a firm with significant and durable market power.
Absolute monopolies do not exist. If there’s one asshole selling PC games out of a car boot, Steam does not have a literal absolute monopoly. And yet: not even Epic Games, a bajillion dollar company, has any meaningful impact on Steam’s superdupermajority control of the PC gaming market. Steam competitors existing does not mean they matter.
Absolute monopolies are fiction.
Standard Oil only ever controlled 85% of America’s oil.
Monopoly is when your competition does not matter - not when it does not exist. There will always be someone competing with you. But if I open Mindbleach’s Video Emporium and move six units per quarter, the impact on Steam is approximately dick.
So is Epic’s.
Monopoly:
https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/single-firm-conduct/monopolization-defined
Absolute monopolies do not exist. If there’s one asshole selling PC games out of a car boot, Steam does not have a literal absolute monopoly. And yet: not even Epic Games, a bajillion dollar company, has any meaningful impact on Steam’s superdupermajority control of the PC gaming market. Steam competitors existing does not mean they matter.