The Archives

The collection of all scholarly commentary on law, economics, and more

Showing results for:  “digital markets act”

Happy 90th Birthday to Thomas Sowell, One of the Great Scholars of Law & Economics: A Sowell-Inspired Agenda for Racial Justice

One of the great scholars of law & economics turns 90 years old today. In his long and distinguished career, Thomas Sowell has written over 40 books and countless opinion columns. He has been a professor of economics and a long-time Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He received a National Humanities Medal in 2002 ... Happy 90th Birthday to Thomas Sowell, One of the Great Scholars of Law & Economics: A Sowell-Inspired Agenda for Racial Justice

The Dishonesty of Conservative Attacks on Section 230

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for repeal of Section 230. But while Trump and fellow conservatives decry Big Tech companies for their alleged anti-conservative bias, including at yet more recent hearings, their issue is not actually with Section 230. It’s with the First Amendment.  Conservatives can’t actually do anything directly about how social media ... The Dishonesty of Conservative Attacks on Section 230

The FTC Case Against PBM Rebates

About a month ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was preparing an antitrust suit against the nation’s three largest pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs), the intermediaries who negotiate drug prices on behalf of insurers and who manage benefits for nearly nine in 10 insured Americans.  This development followed a two-year ... The FTC Case Against PBM Rebates

NTIA Tries to Call the Tune on Digital Discrimination

We’ve all been there. You’re enjoying a hootenanny, and someone tries to change the tune. Kind of like yelling “Free Bird” at a Taylor Swift concert or asking a wedding DJ to play the chicken dance. Well, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has jumped into the digital-discrimination hootenanny and put in some requests. ... NTIA Tries to Call the Tune on Digital Discrimination

FCC’s Digital-Discrimination Rules: Bridging the Divide or a Bridge Too Far?

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recently enacted rules to prevent so-called “digital discrimination” in broadband access are facing a significant legal challenge in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Earlier this week, the U.S. Justice Department and the FCC submitted their brief on the matter. Now that the parties have made their “opening arguments” ... FCC’s Digital-Discrimination Rules: Bridging the Divide or a Bridge Too Far?

Kolasky: The DOJ and FTC Should Revise Their Proposed Vertical Merger Guidelines to Emulate the EU’s

On January 10, the Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew the 1984 DOJ Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines, and, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), released new draft 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines (“DOJ/FTC draft guidelines”) on which it seeks public comment by February 26.[1] In announcing these new draft guidelines, Makan Delrahim, the Assistant Attorney General for ... Kolasky: The DOJ and FTC Should Revise Their Proposed Vertical Merger Guidelines to Emulate the EU’s

Manne & Stout 2: Against Incorporating a Contract/Merger Equivalency Assumption in Vertical Merger Guidelines

In our first post, we discussed the weaknesses of an important theoretical underpinning of efforts to expand vertical merger enforcement (including, possibly, the proposed guidelines): the contract/merger equivalency assumption. In this post we discuss the implications of that assumption and some of the errors it leads to — including some incorporated into the proposed guidelines. ... Manne & Stout 2: Against Incorporating a Contract/Merger Equivalency Assumption in Vertical Merger Guidelines

The Furman Report is a Flimsy Basis for a New UK Competition Policy

Earlier this year the UK government announced it was adopting the main recommendations of the Furman Report into competition in digital markets and setting up a “Digital Markets Taskforce” to oversee those recommendations being put into practice. The Competition and Markets Authority’s digital advertising market study largely came to similar conclusions (indeed, in places it ... The Furman Report is a Flimsy Basis for a New UK Competition Policy

The DMA and Antitrust: A Liaison Dangereuse

As the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has entered the final stage of its approval process, one matter the inter-institutional negotiations appears likely to leave unresolved is how the DMA’s the relationship with competition law affects the very rationale and legal basis for the intervention.  The DMA is explicitly grounded on the questionable assumption ... The DMA and Antitrust: A Liaison Dangereuse

Antitrust Dystopia and Antitrust Nostalgia

The dystopian novel is a powerful literary genre. It has given us such masterpieces as Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. Though these novels often shed light on the risks of contemporary society and the zeitgeist of the era in which they were written, they also almost always systematically overshoot the mark (intentionally ... Antitrust Dystopia and Antitrust Nostalgia

Commissioner Rosch, Rhetoric, and the Relationship Between Economics and Antitrust

Economic theory is essential to antitrust law.  It is economic analysis that constrains antitrust law and harnesses it so that it is used to protect consumers rather than competitors.  And the relationship between economics and antitrust is responsible for the successful evolution of antitrust from its economically incoherent origins to its present state.  In my ... Commissioner Rosch, Rhetoric, and the Relationship Between Economics and Antitrust

No good deed goes unpunished: EFF slams Google for alleged violation of ambiguous privacy pledge

I have small children and, like any reasonably competent parent, I take an interest in monitoring their Internet usage. In particular, I am sensitive to what ad content they are being served and which sites they visit that might try to misuse their information. My son even uses Chromebooks at his elementary school, which underscores ... No good deed goes unpunished: EFF slams Google for alleged violation of ambiguous privacy pledge