Showing results for: “digital markets act”
Developing an Economically Efficient American Trade Policy to Deal with Distortionary Government Subsidies: Brexit and Beyond
U.S. international trade law has various statutory mechanisms to deal with unfair competition. Regrettably, American trade law (and, for that matter, the trade laws of other nations) has a history of being deployed in a mercantilist fashion to further the interests of American producer interests, rather than consumer interests and aggregate economic welfare. That need ... Developing an Economically Efficient American Trade Policy to Deal with Distortionary Government Subsidies: Brexit and Beyond
FTC Moves Closer Toward Ex Ante Merger Regulation
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken another step away from case-specific evaluation of proposed mergers and toward an ex ante regulatory approach in its Oct. 25 “Statement of the Commission on Use of Prior Approval Provisions in Merger Orders.” Though not unexpected, this unfortunate initiative once again manifests the current FTC leadership’s disdain for ... FTC Moves Closer Toward Ex Ante Merger Regulation
A Judicial Nod to Empirically-Based Regulation
The cause of basing regulation on evidence-based empirical science (rather than mere negative publicity) – and of preventing regulatory interference with First Amendment commercial speech rights – got a judicial boost on February 26. Specifically, in National Association of Wheat Growers et al. v. Zeise (Monsanto Case), a California federal district court judge preliminarily enjoined ... A Judicial Nod to Empirically-Based Regulation
A Brief History of the US Drug Approval Process, and the Birth of Accelerated Approval
This is the second post about the U.S. drug-approval process; the first post is here. It will explore how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) arose, how disasters drove its expansion and regulatory oversight, and how the epidemic of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) changed the approval processes. The Arrival of New Medicines Lone inventors, ... A Brief History of the US Drug Approval Process, and the Birth of Accelerated Approval
Will the FTC Reinvigorate an Antiquated Law that Raises Prices?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Congress are showing renewed interest in a Great Depression-era law, the Robinson-Patman Act, that discourages sales discounts. This is bad news for hard-strapped American consumers, who have had to cope with prices that have risen more than 20% since February 2020. As such, reinvigorated enforcement of the RPA, a ... Will the FTC Reinvigorate an Antiquated Law that Raises Prices?
What’s hip (in antitrust) today should stay passé: Henry G. Manne on “hipster antitrust”
Today would have been Henry Manne’s 90th birthday. When he passed away in 2015 he left behind an immense and impressive legacy. In 1991, at the inaugural meeting of the American Law & Economics Association (ALEA), Manne was named a Life Member of ALEA and, along with Nobel Laureate Ronald Coase, and federal appeals court ... What’s hip (in antitrust) today should stay passé: Henry G. Manne on “hipster antitrust”
FTC v Amazon: With every victory in court the FTC loses a little more
Yesterday a federal district court in Washington state granted the FTC’s motion for summary judgment against Amazon in FTC v. Amazon — the case alleging unfair trade practices in Amazon’s design of the in-app purchases interface for apps available in its mobile app store. The headlines score the decision as a loss for Amazon, and the FTC, of course, ... FTC v Amazon: With every victory in court the FTC loses a little more
Commissioner Rosch’s really weak case for “behavioral antitrust”
Josh’s ongoing series on “Nudging Antitrust” and FTC Commissioner Rosch’s recent thoughts on behavioral economics has been excellent and I look forward to the next installment. Rosch’s speech, not surprisingly, also elicited a strong response from me. What follows are my thoughts on Rosch’s speech, focusing on some of the same issues Josh addressed in ... Commissioner Rosch’s really weak case for “behavioral antitrust”
Stoneridge Securities Fraud Opinion from the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s opinion in Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta was issued today. This case involved investors in Charter Communications’ common stock who sued under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The investors sued Charter’s SUPPLIERS AND CUSTOMERS, including Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola, who had entered into essentially “wash†contracts with Charter for ... Stoneridge Securities Fraud Opinion from the Supreme Court
Evading Section Two, Two Ways: The Commission's Cases Against McCormick and Intel
Yesterday, in my contribution to the Antitrust & Competition Policy Blog’s Section 5 symposium, I discussed the FTC’s use of Section 5 to evade the tough standards facing plaintiffs bringing Section 2 claims and how that evasion was likely to cost consumers by stripping out the error-cost protections embedded in modern monopolization law. I also ... Evading Section Two, Two Ways: The Commission's Cases Against McCormick and Intel
Real lawyers read the footnotes, but cite them only when relevant: A response to Harold Feld on the FCC SpectrumCo Order
“Real lawyers read the footnotes!”—thus did Harold Feld chastise Geoff and Berin in a recent blog post about our CNET piece on the Verizon/SpectrumCo transaction. We argued, as did Commissioner Pai in his concurrence, that the FCC provided no legal basis for its claims of authority to review the Commercial Agreements that accompanied Verizon’s purchase ... Real lawyers read the footnotes, but cite them only when relevant: A response to Harold Feld on the FCC SpectrumCo Order
The Dodd-Frank debacle, takeover edition
The so-called “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” was supposed to fix the problems that led to the financial bust. Of course, that would require some understanding of what, exactly, those problems were, which Congress lacked. The Act did little to fix the credit raters or the derivatives market that surely had something ... The Dodd-Frank debacle, takeover edition
