Showing results for: “digital markets act”
Principles for Bailout Management
I had the pleasure last week of participating in a bailout panel at William & Mary Law School. The William & Mary Federalist Society, which hosted the event, asked each panelist to address three topics: what led to the current situation, how the bailout plan will (or won’t) fix things, and suggestions for implementing a ... Principles for Bailout Management
Do Slotting Contracts Harm Consumers?
Warning: shameless plug of my own research to follow! Slotting allowances, or payments for shelf space, have been a central part of my research agenda for the last several years. My work with Ben Klein, The Economics of Slotting Contracts, presents a procompetitive theoretical explanation (and some aggregate data in support of our theory) for ... Do Slotting Contracts Harm Consumers?
Law entrepreneurs
On Thursday I’ll be speaking at the Law & Entrepreneurship “Conference within a Conference” hosted by Law & Society at its annual meeting in Chicago. Here’s my panel, also including Rob Beard, Brian Broughman and Erik Gerding. My topic is “law entrepreneurs.” My presentation will continue my speculation, begun in Death of Big Law, on ... Law entrepreneurs
Varney on the Merger Guidelines
Yesterday the final Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review workshop was held and, among other antitrust luminaries, our own Josh Wright participated. We look forward to a report from the front lines. Meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General Varney’s comments are available on the interwebs. Overall her remarks seem uncontroversial, especially following on the heels of the agency’s (surprising?) ... Varney on the Merger Guidelines
Top Ten Lines in the FCC’s Staff Analysis and Findings
Geoff Manne’s blog on the FCC’s Staff Analysis and Findings (“Staff Report”) has inspired me to come up with a top ten list. The Staff Report relies heavily on concentration indices to make inferences about a carrier’s pricing power, even though direct evidence of pricing power is available (and points in the opposite direction). In ... Top Ten Lines in the FCC’s Staff Analysis and Findings
Evidence of the SOX effect on IPOs
Last week I noted that Facebook’s big private sale to Goldman was a symptom of how higher disclosure costs have helped make private firms reluctant to take the once-expected step of going public: “[I]t seems the increased costs of being public have helped exclude ordinary people from the ability to own the stars of the ... Evidence of the SOX effect on IPOs
UK Poised to Begin Realizing Brexit’s Regulatory-Reform Potential
The United Kingdom’s 2016 “Brexit” decision to leave the European Union created the opportunity for the elimination of unwarranted and excessive EU regulations that had constrained UK economic growth and efficiency. Recognizing that fact, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched the Task Force on Innovation, Growth, and Regulatory Reform, whose May 2021 report recommended “a new regulatory ... UK Poised to Begin Realizing Brexit’s Regulatory-Reform Potential
The Roberts Court and the Limits of Antitrust
I’ve just finished a draft of a paper for an upcoming conference on the Roberts Court’s business law decisions. Volokh blogger Jonathan Adler, who directs the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western, is organizing the conference. The other presenters are Adam Pritchard from Michigan (covering the Court’s securities decisions), Brian Fitzpatrick from ... The Roberts Court and the Limits of Antitrust
Sen. Lugar’s New Grip on Reality
In a recent speech at the Brookings Institution, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) bashed what he called “a laissez-faire energy policy that relies on market evolution.” Under such a policy, he says, “life in America is going to be much more difficult in the coming decades.” He insists that “[w]hat is needed is an urgent national ... Sen. Lugar’s New Grip on Reality
The Economics and Regulation of Payment Card Interchange Fees: Paper and Conference
Two related items from ICLE: As regular readers know, interchange fees are a frequent topic of conversation around the blog. Taking the conversation from the ether to the real world, ICLE has funded a white paper and is putting on a conference next week on the topic. The conference, in fact, grows out of the ... The Economics and Regulation of Payment Card Interchange Fees: Paper and Conference
Lawyers vs. software
Roger Parloff asks, “can software practice law?” He discusses class litigation over whether the web service LegalZoom.com is illegally practicing law in Missouri by helping users prepare legal documents by posing questions and then providing a customized document based on the user’s answers. The class plaintiffs don’t claim any injury other than the price they ... Lawyers vs. software
Antitrust at the Agencies Roundup: The Joint FTC/DOJ Guidelines to Nowhere (or Nowhere Good) Edition
The FTC and DOJ have done it: on July 19 they released the long awaited (or dreaded) draft merger guidelines, which . . . well, could have been worse, given current agency leadership, but could have been better (as demonstrated by the certainly imperfect, but still better, 2010 guidelines they replaced). Jumping on the agencies’ ... Antitrust at the Agencies Roundup: The Joint FTC/DOJ Guidelines to Nowhere (or Nowhere Good) Edition
