Showing results for: “digital markets act”
Toward a Dynamic Consumer Welfare Standard for Contemporary U.S. Antitrust Enforcement
For decades, consumer-welfare enhancement appeared to be a key enforcement goal of competition policy (antitrust, in the U.S. usage) in most jurisdictions: The U.S. Supreme Court famously proclaimed American antitrust law to be a “consumer welfare prescription” in Reiter v. Sonotone Corp. (1979). A study by the current adviser to the European Competition Commission’s chief ... Toward a Dynamic Consumer Welfare Standard for Contemporary U.S. Antitrust Enforcement
THIS THURSDAY: The Law and Economics of Search Engines and Online Advertising at GMU Law
The Henry G. Manne Program in Law & Economics Studies and Google present a conference on The Law and Economics of Search Engines and Online Advertising to be held at George Mason University School of Law, Thursday, June 16th, 2011. The conference will run from 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. OVERVIEW: This conference is organized ... THIS THURSDAY: The Law and Economics of Search Engines and Online Advertising at GMU Law
A big year for business and economics in the courts, even if we’re not talking about Janus
This has been a big year for business in the courts. A U.S. district court approved the AT&T-Time Warner merger, the Supreme Court upheld Amex’s agreements with merchants, and a circuit court pushed back on the Federal Trade Commission’s vague and heavy handed policing of companies’ consumer data safeguards. These three decisions mark a new ... A big year for business and economics in the courts, even if we’re not talking about Janus
Dynamic Competition Proves There Is No Captive Audience: 10 Years, 10G, and YouTube TV
In Susan Crawford’s 2013 book “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age,” the Harvard Law School professor argued that the U.S. telecommunications industry had become dominated by a few powerful companies, leading to limited competition and negative consequences for consumers, especially for broadband internet. Crawford’s ire was focused particularly ... Dynamic Competition Proves There Is No Captive Audience: 10 Years, 10G, and YouTube TV
Price Discrimination Is Good, Part I
Price discrimination involves a firm taking advantage of different elasticities of demand for the same goods by charging different prices relative to marginal cost. Price discrimination is ubiquitous in our economy but remains a four letter word in policy and regulation circles. We observe price discrimination in all sorts of product markets, from small and ... Price Discrimination Is Good, Part I
AICOA: An Affront to the Rule of Law
The fate of the badly misnamed American Innovation and Choice Online Act, S. 2992 (AICOA), may be decided by the August congressional recess. AICOA’s serious flaws have been ably dissected by numerous commentators (see, for example, here, here, here, and here). Moreover, respected former senior Democratic antitrust enforcers who have advocated more aggressive antitrust enforcement ... AICOA: An Affront to the Rule of Law
The FTC Makes its Google Investigation Official, Now What?
No surprise here. The WSJ announced it was coming yesterday, and today Google publicly acknowledged that it has received subpoenas related to the Commission’s investigation. Amit Singhal of Google acknowledged the FTC subpoenas at the Google Public Policy Blog: At Google, we’ve always focused on putting the user first. We aim to provide relevant answers ... The FTC Makes its Google Investigation Official, Now What?
The Fate of the FCC’s Open Internet Order–Lessons from Bank Fees
Economists have long warned against price regulation in the context of network industries, but until now our tools have been limited to complex theoretical models. Last week, the heavens sent down a natural experiment so powerful that the theoretical models are blushing: In response to a new regulation preventing banks from charging debit-card swipe fees ... The Fate of the FCC’s Open Internet Order–Lessons from Bank Fees
The Amazon / Whole Foods overreaction: Antitrust populism exposed
The gist of these arguments is simple. The Amazon / Whole Foods merger would lead to the exclusion of competitors, with Amazon leveraging its swaths of data and pricing below costs. All of this begs a simple question: have these prophecies come to pass? The problem with antitrust populism is not just that it leads to unfounded predictions regarding the negative effects of a given business practice. It also ignores the significant gains which consumers may reap from these practices. The Amazon / Whole foods offers a case in point.
Ending Transaction ‘Mission Creep’ at the FCC
by Larry Downes and Geoffrey A. Manne Now that the election is over, the Federal Communications Commission is returning to the important but painfully slow business of updating its spectrum management policies for the 21st century. That includes a process the agency started in September to formalize its dangerously unstructured role in reviewing mergers and ... Ending Transaction ‘Mission Creep’ at the FCC
The Ninth Circuit Rescues the Government Raisin Cartel
On May 9, 2014, in Horne v. Department of Agriculture, the Ninth Circuit struck a blow against economic liberty by denying two California raisin growers’ efforts to recover penalties imposed against them by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The growers’ heinous offense was their refusal to continue participating in a highly anticompetitive cartel. In ... The Ninth Circuit Rescues the Government Raisin Cartel
Whole Foods: Where's the [premium, natural and organic] beef?
John Mackey posts a remarkable public response to the FTC, including the complete text and extended exegesis of one of the inflammatory hot docs that prompted the FTC’s action. But most amazing of all is this comment: The claims that the FTC makes in the above two paragraphs [from the FTC press release] are simply ... Whole Foods: Where's the [premium, natural and organic] beef?
