Showing results for: “loyalty discounts”
Voting Now Open for 2016 Concurrences Writing Awards
I urge Truth on the Market readers to signal their preferences and help select the 2016 antitrust writing awards bestowed by the prestigious competition law and policy journal, Concurrences. (See here for the 2015 winners.) Readers and a Steering Committee vote for their favorite articles among those nominated, which results in a short list of ... Voting Now Open for 2016 Concurrences Writing Awards
Ignoring Decision Theory, the European Commission Continues to Waste Competition Enforcement Resources on Investigations of (Almost Certainly) Efficient Conduct
This blurb published yesterday by Competition Policy International nicely illustrates the problem with the growing focus on unilateral conduct investigations by the European Commission (EC) and other leading competition agencies: “EU: Qualcomm to face antitrust complaint on predatory pricing Dec 03, 2015 The European Union is preparing an antitrust complaint against Qualcomm Inc. over suspected ... Ignoring Decision Theory, the European Commission Continues to Waste Competition Enforcement Resources on Investigations of (Almost Certainly) Efficient Conduct
The Supreme Court Needs to Intervene and Bring Rationality to Tying Law – and It May Wish to Look at Loyalty Discounts as Well
In Collins Inkjet Corp. v. Eastman Kodak Co. (2015) (subsequently settled, leading to a withdrawal of Kodak’s petition for certiorari), the Sixth Circuit elected to apply the Cascade Health Solutions v. PeaceHealth “bundled discount attribution price-cost” methodology in upholding a preliminary injunction against Kodak’s policy of discounting the price of refurbished Kodak printheads to customers ... The Supreme Court Needs to Intervene and Bring Rationality to Tying Law – and It May Wish to Look at Loyalty Discounts as Well
Josh Wright and the Limits of Antitrust
Alden Abbott and I recently co-authored an article, forthcoming in the Journal of Competition Law and Economics, in which we examined the degree to which the Supreme Court and the federal enforcement agencies have recognized the inherent limits of antitrust law. We concluded that the Roberts Court has admirably acknowledged those limits and has for ... Josh Wright and the Limits of Antitrust
An Economist’s Touch: Josh Wright’s FTC Legacy
The FTC was the brain child of Progressive Era technocrats who believed that markets could be made to run more effectively if distinguished experts in industry and economics were just put in charge. Alas, as former FTC Chair Bill Kovacic has chronicled, over the Commission’s first century precious few of the Commissioners have been distinguished ... An Economist’s Touch: Josh Wright’s FTC Legacy
A Vision of a Class-Free Society – California Suit Against Uber Makes Little Sense
Uber is currently facing a set of plaintiffs who are seeking class certification in the Northern District of California (O’Connor, et. al v. Uber, #CV 13-3826-EMC) on two distinct grounds. First, the plaintiffs allege that Uber systematically deprived them of tips from riders by virtue of how the service is presented to end-users and how ... A Vision of a Class-Free Society – California Suit Against Uber Makes Little Sense
Debunking the Myth of a Data Barrier to Entry for Online Services
Recent years have seen an increasing interest in incorporating privacy into antitrust analysis. The FTC and regulators in Europe have rejected these calls so far, but certain scholars and activists continue their attempts to breathe life into this novel concept. Elsewhere we have written at length on the scholarship addressing the issue and found the ... Debunking the Myth of a Data Barrier to Entry for Online Services
Highlights from Josh Wright’s Interview in The Antitrust Source
Anyone interested in antitrust enforcement policy (and what TOTM reader isn’t?) should read FTC Commissioner Josh Wright’s interview in the latest issue of The Antitrust Source. The extensive (22 page!) interview covers a number of topics and demonstrates the positive influence Commissioner Wright is having on antitrust enforcement and competition policy in general. Commissioner Wright’s ... Highlights from Josh Wright’s Interview in The Antitrust Source
CONDITIONAL PRICING PRACTICES AND THE LIMITS OF ANTITRUST
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) June 23 Workshop on Conditional Pricing Practices featured a broad airing of views on loyalty discounts and bundled pricing, popular vertical business practices that recently have caused much ink to be spilled by the antitrust commentariat. In addition to predictable academic analyses featuring alternative theoretical anticompetitive effects stories, the Workshop ... CONDITIONAL PRICING PRACTICES AND THE LIMITS OF ANTITRUST
McWane: Why Have An Administrative Law Judge?
Two modest offices on the first floor of the FTC building are occupied by the FTC Administrative Law Judge and his staff. Of all of the agencies with an ALJ, the FTC’s operation must be the smallest. The ALJ handles only a handful of trials each year. In the past, the FTC ALJ operation has ... McWane: Why Have An Administrative Law Judge?
Commissioner Wright’s Call for Section 5 Guidance Getting Attention on Capitol Hill
Late this summer, TOTM hosted a blog symposium on potential guidelines for the Federal Trade Commission’s exercise of its “unfair methods of competition” authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Commissioner Josh Wright inspired the symposium by proposing a set of enforcement guidelines for the Commission. Shortly thereafter, Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen proposed her own guidelines, which were largely consistent with ... Commissioner Wright’s Call for Section 5 Guidance Getting Attention on Capitol Hill
My New Paper on Defining Exclusionary Conduct
In our recent blog symposium on Section 5 of the FTC Act, Latham & Watkins partner Tad Lipsky exposed one of antitrust’s dark little secrets: Nobody really knows what Sherman Act Section 2 forbids. The provision bans monopolization, attempted monopolization, and conspiracies to monopolize, and courts have articulated formal elements for each claim. But the ... My New Paper on Defining Exclusionary Conduct
