Zywicki on Interchange Fee Legislation
My colleague (and TOTM Credit Card Symposium participant — posts here and here) Todd Zywicki has an excellent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today on Congressional legislation aimed at regulating interchange fees. Here’s an excerpt detailing the predictable economic consequences of the legislation: What would happen if the Merchants Payments Coalition gets its way ... Zywicki on Interchange Fee Legislation
My Top Ten Antitrust Publications of the Year
Danny Sokol posted his blog’s list of top antitrust publications for the year. The big winners were Einer Elhauge, Bundled Discounts, and the Death of the Single Monopoly Profit Theory, 123 Harvard Law Review 397 (2009), and Nathan Miller, Strategic Leniency and Cartel Enforcement, American Economic Review. In the holiday rush, I forget to send ... My Top Ten Antitrust Publications of the Year
Shelf Space Contracts and Slotting Fees in Israeli Supermarkets
A TOTM reader sends me the following interesting development on an emerging dispute over shelf space competition in Israeli supermarkets: Israel’s Super-Sol to Aggressively Pursue Stocking Fees and Perhaps its Private Label Positioning Tel Aviv…Stocking shelves in an Israeli supermarket will henceforth cost manufacturers and distributors money, it was announced by the mega Super-Sol chain, ... Shelf Space Contracts and Slotting Fees in Israeli Supermarkets
Armentano in the WSJ, Abolition and Antitrust Fairy Tales …
Leading antitrust critic and abolitionist, Dominick Armentano, has a letter to the editor in the WSJ. The point of the letter to the editor is rather specific: that FTC’s attack on Intel is no outlier in the historical context of antitrust enforcement, contrary to the WSJ’s description. To the contrary, Armentano argues that Intel is ... Armentano in the WSJ, Abolition and Antitrust Fairy Tales …
Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste, Vietnam Edition
In light of economic worries in Vietnam, the WSJ reports that the country is soon likely to impose a widespread set of price controls and restrictions on political activity after an encouraging move toward freer markets: Carlyle Thayer, a veteran Vietnam watcher and professor at the Australian Defense Academy in Canberra, says conservative factions in ... Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste, Vietnam Edition
Daubert and Antitrust Economics, Or When Should An Antitrust Economist Have Training in Economics?
Judge Saris’s district court opinion denying the motion to exclude one of the plaintiff’s economic experts in Natchitoches Parish Hospital v. Tyco International recently came across my desk. It is an interesting case involving allegations that Covidien, a leading supplier of “sharps containers” used for the disposal of various needle-involving medical products (syringes, IVs, etc.) ... Daubert and Antitrust Economics, Or When Should An Antitrust Economist Have Training in Economics?
FTC Nominee Hearings
Statements from Nominees Brill and Ramirez, respectively, from the December 15th hearings.
Features v. Bugs: Intel and the Relationship Between Sections 2 and 5
There will be much to say about the Federal Trade Commission’s Intel complaint in the coming months. And we’ve said quite a bit already. But having just read the complaint and the statements from Chairman Leibowitz and Commissioner Rosch discussing the various rationales for making Section 5 the primary hook for this case, I wanted ... Features v. Bugs: Intel and the Relationship Between Sections 2 and 5
Not Going Anywhere For A While?
Try reading H.R. 4173. All 1300 pages of it. The portion of the bill creating the Consumer Financial Protection Agency starts around page 665 for those keeping score at home.
Stossel Returns
An announcement from John Stossel: It’s finally here – my new Fox Business show! Fox fittingly has titled it, Stossel. It premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. It will repeat Fridays at 10 p.m., where I’ll be up against my old program, 20/20. FBN has given me an opportunity to do 44 TV shows on what ... Stossel Returns
Searle Center Preliminary Report on State Consumer Protection Acts
The Searle Center Civil Justice Institute has announced the release of its preliminary report on State Consumer Protection Acts: An Empirical Investigation of Private Litigation. You can read the Executive Summary here. As the Searle Center State Consumer Protection Acts Task Force Chair, I’ve been involved in the data collection, analysis, and drafting of this ... Searle Center Preliminary Report on State Consumer Protection Acts
Merchant Collusion as an Antitrust Remedy
In my first post I discussed the potential for interchange legislation from a consumer protection perspective, that is, would the combination of disclosure requirements coupled with a reduction of interchange fees be likely to improve consumer welfare. I concluded that from the consumer protection perspective, the case for interchange legislation was weak. I noted that ... Merchant Collusion as an Antitrust Remedy
