Antitrust at the Agencies: Pour One Out for Southern Glazer’s
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled a wine-and-spirits case, and its press release reads like a victory toast. The two commissioners who approved the deal write as if they’d rather send the bottle back. Consumers might want to check the tab. The settlement in Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits landed just after I’d put ... Antitrust at the Agencies: Pour One Out for Southern Glazer’s
Fraud, Platforms, and the Art of Getting Ahead of Yourself
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants to stop impersonation scams. Fair enough. But calling a new regulatory venture an “update” doesn’t make it one, and spotting a real problem doesn’t tell you which rules—if any—will solve it. A little more homework would help. On Sept. 24, the FTC announced an advance notice of proposed rulemaking ... Fraud, Platforms, and the Art of Getting Ahead of Yourself
Checkout Error: A Bad Grocery Plan Meets a Weak Antitrust Case
I’ve criticized plenty of private antitrust cases. This may be the first in which the plaintiffs sued to stop a genuinely bad idea—and I still think they should lose. That is the odd posture of the antitrust challenge to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan for subsidized grocery stores in New York City. On Sept. 9, the ... Checkout Error: A Bad Grocery Plan Meets a Weak Antitrust Case
Fine Print for Every Price: The FTC’s One-Size-Fits-All Guidance
My first post at Truth on the Market—where I called myself a “Refugee from the FTC”—briefly discussed an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) published in the Federal Register by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under Chair Lina Khan. This one bore the expansive title “Trade Regulation Rule on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security.” I ... Fine Print for Every Price: The FTC’s One-Size-Fits-All Guidance
Much Ado About Removal: The Supreme Court, the FTC, and the End of Independent-ish Agencies
For roughly 90 years, Humphrey’s Executor had been the constitutional law equivalent of a load-bearing antique: an awkward, if still functioning, architectural kludge, much admired in certain circles, but increasingly hard to rationalize. Earlier this week, finally, the U.S. Supreme Court replaced it. In Trump v. Slaughter, the Court overruled that 1935 opinion. The president ... Much Ado About Removal: The Supreme Court, the FTC, and the End of Independent-ish Agencies
AICOA Rises from the Grave, Still Looking for a Theory of Harm
AICOA is back from the dead, and this time it has learned a few new tricks—mostly how to lower liability thresholds, raise defense burdens, and keep treating “Big Tech” as if capitalization were a theory of harm. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act has failed twice before. Its latest incarnation is not so much ... AICOA Rises from the Grave, Still Looking for a Theory of Harm
The FTC’s Robinson-Patman Hangover
There is no special virtue in seeing a bad case through to the bitter end. At some point, persistence looks less like principle and more like a sunk cost with a docket number. Last week, I wrote about the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) appeal in FTC v. Meta Platforms. The appeal seems to me a ... The FTC’s Robinson-Patman Hangover
The FTC’s Sunk-Cost Social Network
The first rule of holes is supposed to be: stop digging. The sunk-cost fallacy is realized when we keep digging anyway—and then call it resolve. We—people—often have a hard time letting a bad thing go. That’s true even for those who are well acquainted with the sunk-cost fallacy and should know better. I’ve been there. ... The FTC’s Sunk-Cost Social Network
Antitrust at the Agencies: National Nanny Hangover Edition
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) rulemaking machinery is humming again. Is it being tuned for optimal performance—or revved for another trip into the ditch? Most of the current action has to do with consumer protection. That’s par for the course, really. Apart from issuing the ill-fated noncompete rule, since vacated—comments here if anyone wants a ... Antitrust at the Agencies: National Nanny Hangover Edition
California Dreamin’ or an Antitrust Nightmare?
California is about to run a live-fire experiment in antitrust—and the working hypothesis appears to be that decades of case law and economic learning were optional. In January, I published a short post—“Rewriting Antitrust, California Style”—that touched on the inner workings (machinations?) of the California Law Review Commission (CLRC). I flagged concerns about the staff’s ... California Dreamin’ or an Antitrust Nightmare?
Speech, Section 5, and Some Curious Scribbling: A First Amendment Story
The line between regulating conduct and regulating speech can be thin—and sometimes, suspiciously convenient. Last week, my International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) colleagues Ben Sperry and Jeff Westling published a post here at Truth on the Market titled “The FCC’s Sleeping Power over the Press.” It’s not about antitrust, but it’s well worth ... Speech, Section 5, and Some Curious Scribbling: A First Amendment Story
Section 5 Soup: The Still-Secret Recipe to the FTC’s PBM Case
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just announced a “landmark” settlement with one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). The problem is that it doesn’t actually end the PBM case—and it raises as many questions as it answers. In its settlement with Express Scripts Inc. (ESI) and its affiliated entities, the agency says the ... Section 5 Soup: The Still-Secret Recipe to the FTC’s PBM Case
