June 17 - 2:00pm EDT   US Democratic Congressman Eric Massa on Wednesday introduced the Broadband Internet Fairness Act, a measure to monitor and regulate capped, tiered Internet services. The bill would require any provider switching from a typically unlimited plan to a usage-based system to be scrutinized by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and would ban any service plans that the FTC deems "unreasonable or discriminatory." Providers that ignored any imposed bans would be subject to unspecified punishment. [full story]

May 14 - 4:05pm EDT   The US Federal Trade Commission today dropped its antitrust case against memory producer Rambus. The company had previously been found guilty of abusing its monopoly power but successfully won an appeal in 2008; the FTC's decision to quit follows after its own appeal was rejected in February and the government body considered its options. Officials say the departure comes after they decide it would "not be in the public interest" to pursue Rambus further. [full story]

November 7 - 4:55pm EST   In addition to filing a lawsuit against graphics hardware maker NVIDIA back in July, technology licensing company Rambus has filed a formal complaint against the company on Thursday with the US International Trade Commission. Rambus has requested an investigation of NVIDIA products that it hopes would lead to the barring of importation, sale for importation and sale after importation of the latter's products that Rambus believes infringe on nine of its patents. [full story]

June 6 - 1:45pm EDT   Intel is officially being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, writes the Wall Street Journal. The CPU maker has been accused of violating US antitrust laws, specifically for a practice of using exclusive rebates and other tactics designed to discourage builders from turning to other companies. The case appears to be the result of long-term pressure from rival AMD, which has yet to resolve an antitrust lawsuit first filed in 2005. Another government probe began this year in the state of New York, with the help of local politicians. [full story]

January 10 - 12:55pm EST   New York has officially begun an investigation into Intel antitrust allegations, Reuters reports. The state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, says his office has subpoenaed Intel for a variety of information, following preliminary indications that Intel may have forced companies to exclude rival chipmaker AMD from the CPU market. "Our investigation is focused on determining whether Intel has improperly used monopoly power to exclude competitors or stifle innovation," says Cuomo. "We will also look at whether Intel abused its power to remove competitive threats or harm competition in violation of New York and federal antitrust laws." [full story]

December 20 - 12:20pm EST   The US government's Federal Trade Commission has approved Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, the Associated Press reports. The two signed a deal in April worth $3.1 billion, but the purchase has since undergone much scrutiny, primarily due to worries that Google might develop a monopoly in online advertising. This opinion was voiced especially strongly by Microsoft and AT&T, despite the former of the two having bought the ad firm aQuantive. Microsoft is pushing heavily into areas currently ruled by Google, such as web search and mapping. [full story]