When Microsoft complains that you're a monopolist you know things are bad

Kettle Amazon and Google are under the fierce glare of the US Federal Trade Commission, which under the leadership of chair Lina Khan has pursued them over allegations of monopolistic practices.

Last week the case against Google, United States v. Google LLC saw Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella take the stand.

On his way to become CEO of Microsoft, Nadella led Microsoft's search business so has had first-hand experience competing with Google's core offering. In court he testified that Google tries to monopolize the search market by paying to make its search engine the default choice for Apple and Android, this strangling support for Bing.

And let's face it, Microsoft knows a thing or two about monopolizing markets.

Meanwhile Amazon is in the spotlight as the FTC released (some) details of the inner workings of the online souk. In this case, a rare sighting of Project Nessie, an automated price shifting mechanism that the FTC alleges made Amazon over $1 billion - and probably cost you plenty by shifting prices.

So there's plenty to ponder in this week's Kettle, in which those who write the news get to jaw about it later. You can see the episode below:

In the thumbnail, clockwise from top right, we have Tobias Mann, Thomas Claburn, your host Iain Thomson, and Brandon Vigliarolo, who together delve into claims and counter claims, and won't leave you short on the facts. ®