Scholarly commentary on law, economics, & more

Premium, Regular, or Collusive? Brazil’s Aprix Case Tests Algorithmic Pricing

Few antitrust investigations find their theory of harm laid out in the target’s sales brochure. Brazil’s investigation of Aprix, a startup that sells pricing software to gas stations, nearly managed the feat. One of the company’s promotional brochures introduced prospective clients to the prisoner’s dilemma, the classic game-theory example in which individually rational choices can Premium, Regular, or Collusive? Brazil’s Aprix Case Tests Algorithmic Pricing

Fiber Freeze: How Maple Grove Made a Cable Franchise the Price of Broadband

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Build America Agenda rests on a simple premise: Stop making it so hard to build. Federal and state policymakers have spent years reducing permitting delays, resolving pole-attachment disputes, and easing access to public rights-of-way—the public corridors used for infrastructure such as roads, utility poles, and fiber lines. These obstacles slow Fiber Freeze: How Maple Grove Made a Cable Franchise the Price of Broadband

Cartels With Benefits: The Trouble With Extending Labor’s Antitrust Exemption

Antitrust law’s usual instruction to competitors who agree on price is admirably brief: Don’t. Labor law makes a deliberate exception for employees who bargain collectively. Advocates now want that exception to cover at least some independent contractors, including rideshare drivers, truck owner-operators, consultants, and other small-business owners. The proposal may sound like a tidy way Cartels With Benefits: The Trouble With Extending Labor’s Antitrust Exemption

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