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Showing results for:  “digital markets act”

An Antitrust Analysis of the Federal Trade Commission’s Complaint Against Intel

As readers of TOTM know, I’ve been critical of both the Federal Trade Commission’s Complaint against Intel from a consumer welfare perspective as well as the wobbly intellectual underpinnings of the Commission’s attempt to expand its FTC Act Section 5 authority to evade (see also here) the more stringent monopolization standards under Section 2 of ... An Antitrust Analysis of the Federal Trade Commission’s Complaint Against Intel

Intel, Dell, and Some Costs of Disclosing Rebates

Intel’s rebates are apparently given rise to a potentially whole new class of suits based on the notion recipients of the rebates at the center of the Commission’s antitrust action should have been disclosed.   The WSJ reports: Dell said last week that it and Mr. Dell were in talks with the Securities and Exchange ... Intel, Dell, and Some Costs of Disclosing Rebates

Two Submissions to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review Project

This week, I submitted two comments to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Revision Project. The first, submitted with a group of economists focusing on the use of price/cost margins in merger analysis.  The submission lays out the basic relationship between margins and elasticities that flows from the profit-maximization assumption, and then discusses several of the factors ... Two Submissions to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines Review Project

Externalities and Future Selves

Paternalism is a turn-off. We humans seem to have an innate desire for autonomy, a desire that generally leads us to resist efforts by elites to force us to make “wise” decisions. It’s rhetorically useful, then, for opponents of a proposed regulation to demonstrate that the rule at issue aims merely to save folks from ... Externalities and Future Selves

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

"Prosocial," Output-Reducing Collusion

One of my antitrust students recently pointed me to a television commercial that could inspire a great exam question. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the ad until I’d finished drafting this semester’s antitrust exam (which I’ve been grading…hence the absence from TOTM). The T.V. commercial trumpets an agreement among the members of the American Beverage Association ... "Prosocial," Output-Reducing Collusion

Google's Very Public Efficiencies Defense

Here is Google’s attempt to measure its the economic impact of Google search and adwords, adsense and its Google grants programs.  Some media coverage (including a critique of the calculations) here.  The total?  $54 billion.  The report includes state-by-state breakdowns.  Not exactly a made-for-litigation antitrust expert report, but I’m sure a few copies have been ... Google's Very Public Efficiencies Defense

Delaware's Future

I share Prof. Ribstein’s concerns about the federalization of corporate governance contained in the Dodd bill.  Though Senator Carper wasn’t able, in the end, to get the proxy access provisions out of the Dodd Bill, which I think were the most troubling, we did eliminate another of Senator Schumer’s ideas. (The corporate governance provisions of ... Delaware's Future

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

The federalization of corporate governance marches on

Last month I noted that the Senate was about to repeat its SOX mistake with another ill-fated foray into regulating corporate governance.  I focused on provisions for mandatory majority voting, separation of the board chair and CEO jobs, risk committees, say-on-pay, and pay-performance disclosures.   Now Annette Nazareth summarizes (HT Bainbridge) the provisions in the ... The federalization of corporate governance marches on

Who is Pressuring Antitrust? A Response to Wright

[Jonathan Baker (American University, currently on leave at the Federal Communications Commission where he is Chief Economist) has written the following response to Josh’s earlier post commenting on Baker’s forthcoming article: Preserving a Political Bargain: The Political Economy of the Non-Interventionist Challenge to Monopolization Enforcement.   Eds.] Thanks to Josh for engaging with my article in ... Who is Pressuring Antitrust? A Response to Wright

Litigating Delaware governance law in an alien land

A recent Delaware case, Baker v. Impact Holding, Inc.,  raises several interesting questions on a topic I’ve discussed recently – where to litigate cases involving Delaware business entities. Francis Pileggi has a good summary of the case.  I want to explore the case’s implications for jurisdictional competition.  First some general background before getting into the ... Litigating Delaware governance law in an alien land