In the deep end: A Louisiana company billing itself as the world’s largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool products is becoming an Olympic-size target for plaintiffs’ lawyers filing antitrust lawsuits. In November, Pool Corp. settled claims by the Federal Trade Commission that the Covington-based company used its “monopoly power” to eliminate would-be rivals by pressuring manufacturers not to sell their products to other distributors. The settlement, which got final FTC approval on Friday, has spawned a batch of lawsuits in Louisiana, California and Florida over allegations the company’s tactics drove up prices, stifled competition and limited consumers’ choices. Pool Corp. didn’t pay any money or admit any wrongdoing in resolving the FTC’s complaint, but that hasn’t deterred plaintiffs’ attorneys from pursuing class-action claims against the company and two of its subsidiaries.
Going mobile: The number of Internet users in China has surged past 500 million as many new Web surfers go online using mobile phones and tablet computers, an industry group reports today. The popularity of the Internet in China has driven the explosive growth of profitable Web companies and made fortunes for some Chinese entrepreneurs despite government controls on what the public can see online. The number of mainland Internet users rose to 513 million in December, up 12% from a year earlier, the government-sanctioned China Internet Network Information Center says. Among them, the number who go online using handheld devices rose 17.5% over a year earlier to 356 million. Read the full story by The Associated Press here.
Virtual sticks and stones: For the first time, Indian prosecutors are taking Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other networking sites to court for refusing to remove material considered insulting to Indian leaders and major religious figures. Government officials are upset about material insulting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and major religious figures. Some illustrations have shown Singh and Gandhi in compromising positions and pigs running through Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. On Friday, the federal government told a New Delhi court that there is sufficient material to proceed against 21 social networking sites for offenses of “promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration,” according to the Press Trust of India news agency. The Associated Press has the full story here.
