Ralph Grabowski asks the question in his blog “Does CAD face antitrust under Obama?”
It’s an excellent question.
All major CAD vendors have “market power” in certain relevant markets. Lock-ins from restrictive licensing and poor interoperability sometimes leave CAD consumers with little meaningful choice.
It’s well-known among antitrust experts that dominant companies will often push the boundaries of anticompetitive behavior, as the cost of sanctions is less than potential gains in revenue.
This is just a fact of life. It doesn’t make those companies evil.
The challenge is to figure out what to do. How to promote the kind of competition that results in more and better choices for consumers? It’s a question I’ve pondered for well over a decade.
I think, to the extent that government antitrust scrutiny might cause the major CAD vendors to pause and rethink their strategies, it would be a good thing. Yet, the most effective actions I’ve seen from the government in the past have come in its role as a consumer of CAD data, where it has been able to command attention with its checkbook.
It may be that the DOD and GSA are as important as the FTC and DOJ when it comes to promoting competition in the CAD industry.
