Google violated antitrust laws to maintain dominance over online search, judge says
(WASHINGTON) — Google violated U.S. antitrust laws in maintaining a monopoly over the online search business, a federal judge ruled Monday, in a landmark ruling for the Justice Department in its efforts to rein in big tech giants.
D.C. District judge Amit Mehta declared Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, finding the company illegally secured its dominance in the search market by paying billions of dollars to smartphone carriers like Apple to make Google the automatic search engine for their phones — effectively locking any rival businesses from being able to compete.
“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Mehta wrote in his ruling.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve has held interest rates steady at a 23-year high since last July — but a rate cut is widely expected in the coming months. On Wall Street, the outlook for an interest rate cut has shifted from if to when.
The central bank will issue its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday after a months-long stretch of data has established the key conditions for a rate cut: cooling inflation and slowing job gains.
Still, economists expect the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, offering the central bank time to ensure current trends hold ahead of its next meeting in September.
The chances of an interest rate cut at the Fed’s meeting in September stand at more than 85%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment. The same tool shows the odds of a rate cut on Wednesday at a meager 5%.
The economy appears to be hurtling toward interest rate cuts later this year, nevertheless. Such an outcome would deliver long-sought loan relief for households and businesses saddled with expensive debt.
Price increases have slowed significantly from a peak of more than 9%, though inflation remains a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%. An outright drop in prices in June compared to the month prior marked a major sign of progress in slowing inflation.
The labor market has continued to grow but its breakneck pace has cooled. The unemployment rate has ticked up this year from 3.7% to 4.1%.
The Fed is guided by a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and the labor market strong. The monthslong stretch of good news for inflation alongside bad news for unemployment has prompted the Fed to give additional consideration to its goal of keeping Americans on the job, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last month.
“For a long time, since inflation arrived, it’s been right to mainly focus on inflation. But now that inflation has come down and the labor market has indeed cooled off, we’re going to be looking at both mandates. They’re in much better balance,” Powell said at a meeting of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
“That means that if we were to see an unexpected weakening in the labor market, then that might also be a reason for reaction by us,” Powell added.
However, robust economic data released last week may complicate the path toward a rate cut.
The U.S. economy grew much faster than expected over three months ending in June, accelerating from the previous quarter and defying concerns about a possible slowdown, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
If the Fed cuts interest rates as the economy is heating up, the central bank risks rekindling rapid price increases.
After the economic data came out last Thursday, the odds of a September interest rate cut fell to about 80%. The dip in sentiment proved temporary, however. The odds have risen seven percentage points since then.
(NEW YORK) — Mate Rimac has a tall order: trying to convince drivers that electric supercars are superior to combustion vehicles.
Rimac, the 36-year-old engineering savant from Croatia who started his namesake company 15 years ago, recently pulled the sheet of his latest creation: the Nevera R, an aerodynamically perfected supercar designed to hug every tight corner and give maximum driving pleasure. The performance numbers are nearly impossible to comprehend: 2,107 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of 1.74 seconds.
This insanely powerful supercar is breaking industry records. There are, however, snags in Rimac’s master plan. He has acknowledged that turning enthusiasts to electric proselytes could take months, if not years.
Rimac spoke to ABC News earlier this month about the challenges of selling his seven-figure sports cars, taking over French marque Bugatti as CEO and why government officials are making a mistake by pushing electric-vehicle mandates. He’s also a big supporter of autonomous driving.
The interview below has been edited.
ABC News: You introduced the Nevera R electric hypercar to the world at Monterey Car Week. The horsepower that car produces — 2,107! — is mind-blowing. How did you accomplish this?
Mate: I started the company 15 years ago when I was like 20 years old in order to push the limits and show what technology can bring to the table … that the future of automotive is not going to be boring. And the whole goal, my whole focus of the company and of me the last few years, has been to achieve that. It’s not just the car. It’s building the capabilities, the company around it, to actually do it in Croatia, a country that has never built cars before.
The last 15 years of this journey has been leading up to developing this technology, the team, the resources, the factory, the equipment and actually a whole industry.
ABC News: Is horsepower the one metric that matters most to your customers?
Mate: No, absolutely not. It’s the whole package. So performance is being commoditized right now. More and more cars come to the market at a relatively affordable cost that offer quite good performance, incredible performance actually when you compare it to a few years ago when it was only reserved for extreme hypercars. It’s all about emotions and that’s always a challenge with electric cars: How do you convey emotion without the sound of a combustion engine? But everyone who tries a Nevera is like, “Yes, we can see that this car was developed by people who love cars, like proper car guys.” Despite being electric, the Nevera offers a lot of emotion. That’s the most important thing.
ABC News: And how exactly are you delivering that emotion?
Mate: Well, there’s different things. The Nevera has four electric motors that can do crazy drift modes and on a flip of a switch it’s like a track monster. Everything changes — the suspension, the power distribution, it goes from rear-wheel drive to all-wheel drive, it can adjust it exactly as you want. Like it gives a totally different experience.
Emotion for me is the ability to go sideways, to control the car, stuff like that. And we can do all of that with this car.
ABC News: Why are you limiting production of the Nevera R to 40 units? When does production begin?
Mate: The Nevera was 150 units, and the Nevera R is 40 additional. We want to keep exclusivity. The Bugatti Tourbillon is limited to 250 and we could have sold a lot more, but for us it’s important to have exclusivity and it’s also important for the value of the cars later.
We start production early next year and the cost of a Nevera R is 2.3 million euros.
ABC News: Here we are, talking about the electric Nevera R, an engineering triumph, but you made a comment this past spring that high-end buyers don’t want electric supercars. Is that still true? Are you having trouble selling the Nevera to enthusiasts?
Mate: I think electric cars, in any category, need to bring something special. Just making an car electric is not going to cut it. People are thinking, “Let’s just make an electric car and it will sell … or the regulation will force people to go electric.” And I am not totally against that — I am totally against forcing this on people who don’t want an electric car. I am all for bringing something unique, something cool, something different that’s better and maybe more affordable — maybe not in this market segment but in general.
An electric car should be better in every aspect, including price, compared to its competition and then people will buy it.
ABC News: There’s another trend in the industry where automakers are taking electric sports cars but giving them gearboxes and fake engine sounds. Is this something you’ve thought about?
Mate: No, we don’t do this. We have decided from the beginning we only do authentic things. There are no fake sounds, there are no artificial gear shift changes. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ns have that, it’s a gimmick. But we don’t think that’s appropriate for this category of cars.
ABC News: When do you think electric sports and supercars cars will be widely accepted?
Mate: Oh, I think that will be a while. People in this segment still prefer combustion cars. But I think we are the player when it comes to electric performance in this segment.
ABC News: So will the next Rimac sports car or Nevera successor have an internal combustion engine?
Mate: It could be anything. From the beginning, I never said that we are exclusively electric. We were whatever is most exciting. The Nevera R has four electric motors — that is not something you can achieve with a combustion engine. But when it comes to power source, it can be anything. It could be a combustion engine with an interesting fuel, it could be fuel cell that does not run on hydrogen. We are really looking at lots of stuff. The next car doesn’t necessarily have to be purely electric — whatever is most exciting and most technically interesting. I have been doing electric cars now for 15 years … I am very excited to look at other stuff as well.
ABC News: Where are you seeing the most demand for your cars?
Mate: The U.S. is the biggest customer base, closely after that is Europe. So like 40% [of sales] are in the U.S., 30% is Europe and then the rest of the world.
ABC News: What are the challenges of running two high performance and ultra luxe brands like Bugatti and Rimac? They compete for the same customers and that’s a very limited pool.
Mate: These customers have multiple cars, it’s not just like they buy just one car. They want to be a part of something. It’s about the people behind it, it’s about the events, meeting each other. [Customers] are becoming part of a story. They’re also becoming a part of history. We are creating history together.
Many of the customers decided to join Rimac because they’re also part of Bugatti or vice versa and they deal with the same people, they go to Croatia, they have the Croatia experience, so it actually works well. With Bugatti you have to be careful, it’s an old brand with a lot of heritage. You have to be very respectful to the brand. You cannot do something that’s crazy. A lot of our Nevera customers are also Bugatti customers.
ABC News: What is the biggest obstacle for all automakers and the industry right now?
Mate: There are three big topics. One is electrification. A lot of people invested a lot into electrification and maybe it was a bit too fast. The other area is China. The third one is autonomous driving and finding new ways of moving around where ownership isn’t really necessary anymore. The lower-end brands are really in the trenches, they have issues. It’s for sure an interesting time and in the next year we’ll see lots of changes in the industry.
ABC News: There are concerns about a recession in the U.S. Has the company been impacted at all?
Mate: This talk has been going on for years, basically since COVID started. We have never been more successful. We sold out of the Tourbillon — all 250 cars. We just presented it two months ago. It’s completely sold out. We are basically sold out until the end of this decade with Bugatti for a car that’s $4.6 million. The market is still strong in this segment.
ABC News: You’re also developing a driverless robotaxi that could be in service as soon as 2026. These types of vehicles have received a lot of bad press lately and have been involved in serious safety accidents. Why robotaxis? You design cars for real-life drivers.
Mate: Yeah, but do you really like to drive in every situation? Like how many times would you rather spend your time doing something else — watching a movie, or typing on your phone or typing some emails but you can’t because you’re driving or even worse you’re doing it while you’re driving. Not every drive is necessarily exciting and let’s be honest — how many people really care about it? I am not saying car ownership should go away or people shouldn’t drive cars anymore. God forbid.
We just think it makes sense. When an autonomous car in this stage has an accident, even if it’s a minor one, of course it will be blown out of proportion. But eventually autonomous cars will be a lot safer, a lot safer than human drivers and they will save millions of lives.
ABC News: So you have taken over Bugatti, you’re building electric hypercars and you also want to build robotaxis.
What is next on your list to accomplish?
Mate: [laughs]. Oh Jesus Christ, nothing. I made a vow to myself to finish all these things and then I don’t know. I might take a long vacation.
(NEW YORK) — Junk, resort, destination, urban, and amenity fees are pseudonyms for the mandatory, often unexpected surcharges you might find tackled on your hotel bill. According to the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), these fees cost Americans nearly $3.4 billion annually and despite recent bipartisan efforts by the Biden administration to combat junk fees entirely, they still seem to pop up when it’s time to pay for your stay.
“The consumer is the loser” when it comes to junk fees, Clint Henderson, managing editor at The Points Guy, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
The value of what’s being delivered has fallen dramatically for consumers, who are now paying all-encompassing fees for erroneous line items such as Wi-Fi, phone calls, fax machines, towels, beach access, breakfast, parking, fitness centers and more — the list goes on, and “it’s getting hard to keep up,” Henderson said.
“The consumer can only take so much of these [fees] before they break,” said Henderson, adding that “spending hundreds of dollars more on a seven-day holiday can make the cost of travel out of reach for some people.”
Depending on the type of accommodation and length of stay, consumers can expect to pay an average of $38.82 more per night at hotels that charge resort fees, according to a 2024 analysis from NerdWallet.
The push to eliminate junk fees
Overwhelming ‘fee fatigue’ among Americans has led to increased regulatory scrutiny at the federal and state levels. The House of Representatives passed in June the No Hidden FEES Act, which would create federal guidelines for being transparent about hidden costs at stays and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would pursue those who are in violation.
“Americans are tired of being played for suckers,” said President Joe Biden during his February State of the Union address in which he announced his administration’s proposed Junk Fee Prevention Act aimed at eliminating hidden fees and encouraging customers to fight unfair charges.
In October, the FTC proposed a rule to prohibit hidden and bogus fees in all sectors of the U.S. economy, including hotels and short-term lodging.
At the state level, California’s SB 478 law, which went into effect July 1, requires businesses to advertise or list prices inclusive of all mandatory charges. At least 10 other states have followed suit by proposing or enacting junk fee statutes targeting increased fee transparency.
“While price clarity helps, hotels still have a vested interest in keeping these fees…it’s pure profit for them,” said Henderson.
Critics argue that resort fees allow a hotel to effectively increase room rates without changing their advertised prices nor paying extra taxes.
“Whether hidden or not, [junk fees] contribute to these companies’ bottom lines and are still making their way into your bills,” said Henderson.
Protect yourself from junk fees
Henderson shared some tips to protect yourself from added junk fees when booking your next stay:
1. Search for places that don’t charge resort fees
The best way to avoid junk fees is by not being charged them in the first place.
“Knowledge is power for consumers and the more you know, the more you can make smart decisions with your money,” said Henderson, who suggests using sites like Kill Resort Fees to locate high-fee hotels ahead of time.
Bonus: Henderson also advises to plan for tips in your calculations to make sure you’re choosing a destination that fits your budget.
“Even in foreign countries, Americans are often expected to offer something,” he said.
2. Ask to remove resort fees
Speaking up can go a long way. When making your hotel reservation or when checking-in, Henderson recommends asking the hotel if they will simply remove the fee from your total.
“Negotiating is an option, too,” he said.
3. Call your local congressperson and complain about junk fees
“The louder we are, the more political pressure there is on these companies to stop junk fees,” said Henderson, “we’re seeing some progress, but there is still a long way to go.”