Apple in Brazil: Ex Post Antitrust Meets Ex Ante Ambitions
Brazil’s competition authority (CADE) and Apple signed a Dec. 29 settlement agreement (Termo de Compromisso de Cessação, or TCC) resolving a high-stakes antitrust investigation Mercado Livre initiated in 2022 in Brazil and Mexico. Mercado Livre is Latin America’s leading e-commerce and marketplace platform. The agreement marks a watershed moment for Brazil’s digital economy. CADE will ... Apple in Brazil: Ex Post Antitrust Meets Ex Ante Ambitions
Japan’s Experiment in Regulating Mobile Competition the European Way
As ex ante regulation sweeps across digital markets, Japan has decided not to stand athwart the global tide. With the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA) taking effect in December 2025, Tokyo aligned itself with the European Union’s effort to redesign platform competition by rule rather than by case. Among competition scholars, the prevailing mood is ... Japan’s Experiment in Regulating Mobile Competition the European Way
‘Market Power in Antitrust Cases,’ by William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner
William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner’s 1981 Harvard Law Review article “Market Power in Antitrust Cases” is a true classic. Showing the value of interdisciplinary work within the law & economics tradition, it brought real clarity to what “market power” means and how courts should assess it—cutting through vague labels like “monopoly power” and ... ‘Market Power in Antitrust Cases,’ by William M. Landes and Richard A. Posner
The War on Social Media Is Really a War on Community
Australia’s online-safety amendment took effect Dec. 10, banning social-media use nationwide by individuals under age 16. Under terms of the law, social-media platforms that fail to take “reasonable steps” to prevent minors from registering and maintaining accounts may face fines up to A$49.5 million. It now appears that the European Commission, France, Denmark, Greece, Romania, ... The War on Social Media Is Really a War on Community
Beyond the Bark: Brazil’s Prudent Path in Digital Regulation
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently endorsed giving the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) much more power to regulate Big Tech, even as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs “on countries whose taxes, legislation and regulations target US big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.” Trump’s declaration ... Beyond the Bark: Brazil’s Prudent Path in Digital Regulation
Let Privacy Features Compete: A Competition Approach to Privacy Regulation
The digital economy has made consumer data a central consideration in all kinds of consumer transactions. The digital economy “runs on data,” so to speak, although claims that data is “the new oil” fall short of the mark. Various digital services employ data to improve ad targeting, search, and artificial intelligence. In some kinds of ... Let Privacy Features Compete: A Competition Approach to Privacy Regulation
The EU Is Determined to Tear Down Apple’s ‘Walled Garden’
Last month’s decision by the European Commission fining Apple for breach of the Digital Markets Act’s (DMA) anti-steering provisions was just the latest in a series of EU attempts to open the iOS platform in order make it ostensibly more “fair” and “contestable.” But what it also made clear is that the Commission is no ... The EU Is Determined to Tear Down Apple’s ‘Walled Garden’
The Android Auto Decision and the European Antitrust Paradox
The European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Android Auto judgment, delivered in late February, could mark a radical shift in how courts interpret the European Union’s essential-facilities doctrine, as well as the legal standard applied to “refusal to deal” cases. My colleague Giuseppe Colangelo has a great working paper analyzing the decision and its potential consequences. ... The Android Auto Decision and the European Antitrust Paradox
Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic of Latin American Competition Policy
Competition authorities and policymakers around the world have devoted a growing proportion of their time and resources over the last decade to digital markets. Typically, this attention has been accompanied by vocal antipathy toward large digital platforms, as regulators and lawmakers invoke the need to “rein in digital monopolies” that allegedly cause a broad array ... Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic of Latin American Competition Policy
Parsing Brazil’s ‘More Flexible’ Approach to Digital Markets
Following an extensive consultation period, Brazil’s Ministério da Fazenda (Ministry of Finance) last October unveiled its final digital-platform report. Given the public stances previously taken by Brazil’s would-be digital regulators—the antitrust agency Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE) and the telecommunications regulator Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel)—it was likely inevitable that the report would endorse ... Parsing Brazil’s ‘More Flexible’ Approach to Digital Markets
Draghi Report Highlights Why to Be Wary of the ‘Brussels Effect’
Everyone in Europe, and across the international competition-law sphere, seems to have their own interpretation these days of former Italian Prime Minister and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s recent report “The Future of European Competitiveness” (a.k.a., the “Draghi report”). And, of course, those various interpretations, unsurprisingly, inevitably match the interpreter’s policy preferences. This is ... Draghi Report Highlights Why to Be Wary of the ‘Brussels Effect’
A Primer (and Some Questions) About the RealPage Antitrust Case
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and several states filed suit late last month against the property-management software firm RealPage Inc. for its “unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing and to monopolize the market for commercial revenue management software that landlords use to price apartments.” While this is not the first case ... A Primer (and Some Questions) About the RealPage Antitrust Case
