Tag Archives: monopoly

Barking for Alternatives

Generic is not necessarily basic

Pet owners may pause (or paws) to consider the brand of flea-and-tick medications that they administer to their dogs or cats.  In a recent consumer protection-related lawsuit, exclusivity contracts are allegedly to blame for the lack of variety in widespread drug products available to pet owners.  According to the claim, if given the fair opportunity to purchase generic options, consumers of Advantage II and K9 Advantix II topical flea-and-tick treatments could have saved a lot of money.  As the patent guidelines diminished within the appropriate timeframe, generic brands became available to the market about six years ago. Continue reading →

That’s the Ticket

Is it worth the price?

Following a Taylor Swift ticket sale meltdown in November, certain legislators are turning their focus to concert ticket competition.  Specifically, they are considering the statistic that 70% of tickets sold for concert venues in the United States are distributed through Ticketmaster, an exclusively online company that merged with the comparable service Live Nation in 2010.  Legislators argue that the company maintains a strong monopoly of the ticket sale market, making it difficult for consumers to evaluate additional competitive offers or options.  As a business that reaches at least 30 countries, Ticketmaster processes 500 million ticket sale transactions each year.  Continue reading →

Lawsuit to Teach a Lesson

Eliminating a monopoly

College tuition and housing is expensive enough.  But how much are textbooks?  While students may be fully aware of the cost of their education and living on campus before they commit to a particular school, they are not initially provided a breakdown of the price of their course material, per class, per semester. About ten years ago, e-books were only being introduced as a mainstream method of studying.  You could still find most students walking around campus with heavy textbooks.  Since then, textbook sales have decreased, and students are electing to bypass print in order to study material entirely online.  Despite the shift in preference, the textbook market is allegedly depleting options for obtaining needed course material.    Continue reading →