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Showing results for:  “digital markets act”

ELS, CELS and Bubbles in Legal Scholarship

Some interesting thoughts from David Zaring and Larry Ribstein on the future of the empirical legal studies movement and its flagship conference, CELS.   Zaring asks whether there is enough glue holding the various constituencies within the ELS movement together.  Ribstein warns of an empirical bubble and argues that the real need for an umbrella organization ... ELS, CELS and Bubbles in Legal Scholarship

Scalping Next

So Alinea’s Grant Achatz has a new restaurant, Next, which is the talk of Chicago and the nation.  You can buy transferable dining tickets which the NYT reports are being traded online up to $3,000.  So now we see that even chefs can be like Hannah Montana. Alinea caps sales at two tables/customer given a ... Scalping Next

A Decision-Theoretic Rule of Reason for Minimum Resale Price Maintenance

My latest working paper, which bears the same title as this post, is now available on SSRN. In the paper, I address the challenge created by the Supreme Court’s 2007 Leegin decision, which abrogated the 96 year-old rule declaring resale price maintenance (RPM) to be per se illegal. The Leegin Court held that instances of ... A Decision-Theoretic Rule of Reason for Minimum Resale Price Maintenance

New Federal Trade Commission Nominees Julie Brill and Edith Ramirez

The President has announced his intention to nominate two new Federal Trade Commissioners: Julie Brill and Edith Ramirez.  Brill comes from a State AG background (Vermont and most recently North Carolina).  Ramirez was a partner at Quinn Emanuel whose bio suggests significant experience in litigating intellectual property and other commercial contract disputes.

More on the Fighting Antitrust Agencies

One additional observation on the WSJ story Paul mentioned.  Much has been written about the strained relationship between the FTC and DOJ in antitrust matters.  There has, of course, never been a more descriptive and entertaining version of these tensions than the one offered by former Chairman and now Commissioner Kovacic who observed that the ... More on the Fighting Antitrust Agencies

Of Broken Windows and Broken Policy

Today the Obama administration announced with great pride that its economic stimulus plan created or saved about 650,000 jobs.  “Thank goodness!” reads the subtext.  If not for all those new and protected jobs, the unemployment numbers would be really bad! It appears no one in the administration’s economic advisory team has heard of Frédéric Bastiat.  ... Of Broken Windows and Broken Policy

Rhetoric Versus Reality, Part II

President Barack Obama, June 1, 2009: What we are not doing, what I have no interest in doing, is running GM. GM will be run by a private board of directors and management team with a track record in American manufacturing that reflects a commitment to innovation and quality. They, and not the government, will ... Rhetoric Versus Reality, Part II

The War Against Affordable Books

Last week Josh discussed the American Booksellers’ Association’s effort to get the Justice Department to pursue antitrust charges against Walmart, Target, and Amazon for engaging in a vigorous, consumer-benefiting price war. In today’s Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby has a nice piece highlighting a bit more of the Association’s tortured logic. (HT: Don Boudreaux.) Apparently, these ... The War Against Affordable Books

Shocked: Gasoline Prices Vary Edition

From the Attorney General’s Memorandum to the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (HT: Michael Giberson, who is a must read on all issues oil and energy related: Based upon our work and research to date, it is evident that there are regional differences in gasoline prices, as well as differences in the statutory and other ... Shocked: Gasoline Prices Vary Edition

The death of the billable hour?

Jay Shepherd writing on ATL thinks the billable hour is “a dying business model. . . because it focuses on selling the wrong thing. * * * [N]o client in the history of the planet has ever wanted to buy time. * * * It’s what you can do for them during that time.” Shepherd ... The death of the billable hour?

ABA Section of Antitrust Spring Meeting

The 59th Annual Section of Antitrust Spring Meeting is coming up March 30th to April 1.  For those who have not yet had the opportunity to attend and will be in DC or can make it — its a great event and I highly recommend it.  If you are a law student interested in attending ... ABA Section of Antitrust Spring Meeting

The Myth of Consumer Protection Through Disclosure

I will focus my blog post on one of the proposals for reducing interchange fees: the requirement that the fees be disclosed to consumers. I am not sure how seriously this option is taken by the GAO report. Indeed, the report concedes that mandated disclosures in this context are not very likely to be effective, ... The Myth of Consumer Protection Through Disclosure