Lawtrades Podcast - 🗞️ China's unique antitrust motives

🗞️ China's unique antitrust motives

07/21/21 • 8 min

This week: There’s a major difference between China and the United States’ antitrust actions and a federal judge declares DACA unconstitutional. Plus: expect plenty of lawyers to leave Big Law for more flexibility this fall.
🇨🇳 Why Chinese antitrust is all about exerting government power
Just like the US, the Chinese government has been taking antitrust actions against large tech companies. But China has a much different goal, according to the NYT: maintaining more power, a monopoly if you will, of the government.
One antitrust expert in Hong Kong likens it to “shock therapy”: He told the New York Times China has reeled in major companies, like ride-sharing app Didi, to bring them back closer to the government. The end result could be China having de facto state control of tech and all the various data the tech companies collect.
China has been very blunt about this goal: The Communist Party said last year it wanted private companies to “firmly listen to the party and follow the party,” which tech insiders interpreted as a call for them to show their worth and loyalty to the government.
And when Didi didn’t listen to the government, it got shut down
The ridesharing app, which followed through with a U.S. IPO listing, has been removed from app stores over security concerns.
The Takeaway
While some of China’s actions could lead to a more level playing field and potentially lighter working hours for staff of major companies, its antitrust strategy is still centered on consolidating power for itself.
🤔 What to know about DACA and a new federal ruling
A Texas federal judge ruled DACA is unconstitutional. So what does that mean for the “dreamers,” the 600,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children and are protected by the law? Here’s a quick rundown.
The ruling stemmed from an obscure but wide-ranging law: Judge Andrew Hanen wrote that DACA violated the Administrative Procedure Act, known as the Magna Carta of administrative law. The Act requires a “notice-and-comment” session for major federal decisions. Ironically, legal scholars believed the Administrative Procedure Act may have been a barrier for Trump to repeal DACA.
Action will not be taken against current dreamers: And the judge’s ruling will have no effect on dreamers who have begun the renewal process of their status (dreamers must renew every two years). But the ruling bars the federal government from granting dreamer status to new applicants.
The next steps
A permanent solution for ensuring DACA stays intact will likely need to come from Congress. Immigration reform has failed in the past, but policies for making dreamers citizens have been mentioned as priorities for Democrats.
The Verdict
Before any congressional action, the Biden Administration is expected to appeal the federal ruling.
🧞‍♀️ Why 2021 is a good year for lawyers to jump away from firm life
A great attorney exodus could be heading for the nation’s largest law firms if they’re too strict about telling people to go back to the office.
As Lawtrades has known for years, remote working is popular: And Big Law firms found out the same thing over the last year when Covid forced people away from the office. But many of those firms have a hardline policy about returning to office life.
This is a mistake, according to recruiters interviewed by Law.com: Midwest recruiter Dan Scott said associate departures will rise in the fall if firms aren’t realistic about work from home. Companies and firms with flexible options will win. “Big firms that let their associates continue to work remote,” Scott told Law.com, “will be the beneficiaries of the lateral associates that are currently in firms asking them to come back to work.”
Some firms have already adjusted their work plans to keep employees h...

Previous Episode

🗞️ Lawyers say Google is too much like Apple

This week: Google feels the antitrust heat and Chinese tech companies have a major barrier between going public. Plus, America is still trying to solve its Ransomware issue.
🍎 Why state attorneys have a problem with Google resembling Apple
What’s the basis of the antitrust suit against Google, ya know the one that hasn’t been swatted away already by a federal judge, a la Facebook? One simple way to think about it is, as the WSJ explains, regulators are tired of Google acting like Apple.
This new antitrust suit was filed last week: 36 state attorneys general accused Google of turning its Android operating system into a walled garden, i.e. that Google was too powerful in deciding how developers get to use the system.
Android wasn’t supposed to be like this: When it launched, Google presented it as a kind of anti-Apple. Whereas Apple has always exerted complete control over its App Store, Google allowed companies to develop their own app stores to compete against Google Play.
But Google started changing things: Last year, it began requiring all companies that sell services on Android to use Google’s in-app billing system. (This would include major players like Netflix and Spotify.) Google gets a 30% cut of the revenues.
So why is it potentially antitrust?
The attorney generals essentially believe Google is making life harder for the other companies and is able to do so because of its power and influence.
The Verdict
It’ll be a while before this lawsuit progresses, but in the meantime, the Epic v. Apple lawsuit could provide a glimpse of what’s to come for Google.
💥 Chinese tech companies go public at the risk of angering China
The hottest tech companies in China are pondering how to go public -- and not anger their government.
ByteDance just decided to postpone its IPO: The parent company of TikTok, which would have had one of the most hyped IPOs of the year, has bypassed hitting the stock market for an indefinite period of time. This isn’t about getting its finances straight: The WSJ reports that China wanted ByteDance to get its data security strategy in order.
This was likely more of a de facto demand than a request: The Chinese government warned Didi, China’s version of Uber, to improve its security, too, and Didi decided to go ahead with a U.S. public listing. China’s internet regulator has since opened a security investigation and removed Didi from Chinese app stores.
Chinese and American pressure
ByteDance has had issues before, with the Chinese government shutting down another one of its apps for vulgar content in 2018. And, of course, the Trump administration threatened to take TikTok out of American app stores over an entirely different kind of security concern -- that its owners would share data with China.
The Verdict
Security problems can always be an issue, but this appears to be as much about Chinese-American relations as anything else.
🥺 Can America figure out how to stop all the Ransomware?
Pipelines. Schools. The food supply. America has been getting wrecked because of Ransomware in 2021. Is there a good way to stop it?
America knows, more or less, why it’s been going on: Many of the major attacks have been traced to Russia-based hackers, but the options for retaliation aren’t so simple. For one thing, the attacks haven’t definitively been connected to the Kremlin, although the White House believes the Russian government has the power to stop them. Security experts say America risks escalation from Russia, i.e. even more attacks if it gets angry.
So what will the U.S. decide?: The NYT reports that the Biden Administration is on the verge of giving another verbal warning to Putin (he previously notified Putin of several critical infrastructure areas that would lead to an American attack if they were hacked) or potentially making stronger moves to dismantle Russian cyberinfrastructure.
We may be at the “red line”
Basically, the cyber attacks have been so frequent and so strong, particularly a July 4 hacking by a Russian group known as REvil, that the U.S. will take a new approach to dealing with Russia through a counterstrike.
The Verdict
The year of Ransomware is not slowing down at all and if anything is headed for an entirely new chapter. In fact, REvil mysteriously shut down as of Tuesday night. Was it America or R...

Next Episode

🗞️ COVID may change a major internet law

Amy Klobuchar has a new reason for changing Section 230, and Epic gets teamed up with the government against Google. Plus: the lowdown on Biden’s latest Justice Department nominee. 😷 The latest reason for redoing Section 230 The road to reforming Section 230 has been strewn with potholes and detours, but, of all things, COVID may provide an impetus for making changes to this very important internet law.

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