Showing results for: “digital markets act”
FTC on the Gig Economy: The Glass is Almost Empty
The business press generally describes the gig economy that has sprung up around digital platforms like Uber and TaskRabbit as a beneficial phenomenon, “a glass that is almost full.” The gig economy “is an economy that operates flexibly, involving the exchange of labor and resources through digital platforms that actively facilitate buyer and seller matching.” ... FTC on the Gig Economy: The Glass is Almost Empty
Is Pix Really the End of Credit Cards?
In late August, Roberto Campos Neto, the head of Brazil’s central bank, is reported to have said about Pix, the bank’s two-year-old real-time-payments (RTP) system, that it “eliminates the need to have a credit card. I think that credit cards will cease to exist at some point soon.” Wow! Sounds amazing. A new system that ... Is Pix Really the End of Credit Cards?
FTC Biweekly UMC Roundup – 88 mph Edition
We’re back for another biweekly roundup – and what a biweekly it’s been! The JCPA rode, died, and rides again. Yet AICOA is AWOL. FTC Chair Lina Khan went to Congress and back to (Fordham) law school, making waves wherever she went. DOJ added to the agencies’ roster of recently lost cases. And the FTC ... FTC Biweekly UMC Roundup – 88 mph Edition
Damn the Economics, Full Speed Ahead!
A White House administration typically announces major new antitrust initiatives in the fall and spring, and this year is no exception. Senior Biden administration officials kicked off the fall season at Fordham Law School (more on that below) by shedding additional light on their plans to expand the accepted scope of antitrust enforcement. Their aggressive ... Damn the Economics, Full Speed Ahead!
The Case Against Self-Preferencing as a New Antitrust Offense
The practice of so-called “self-preferencing” has come to embody the zeitgeist of competition policy for digital markets, as legislative initiatives are undertaken in jurisdictions around the world that to seek, in various ways, to constrain large digital platforms from granting favorable treatment to their own goods and services. The core concern cited by policymakers is ... The Case Against Self-Preferencing as a New Antitrust Offense
Taking Cost-Benefit Analysis Seriously in Consumer-Data Regulation
In its Advance Notice for Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has requested public comment on an unprecedented initiative to promulgate and implement wide-ranging rules concerning the gathering and use of consumer data in digital markets. In this contribution, I will assume, for the sake of argument, ... Taking Cost-Benefit Analysis Seriously in Consumer-Data Regulation
FTC Biweekly UMC Roundup – Reform Dies in Committee Edition
Welcome back to the FTC UMC Roundup! The Senate is back in session and bills are dying. FTC is holding hearings and faith in the agency is dying. The more things change the more they stay the same. Which is a fancy way of saying that despite all the talk of change, little change seems ... FTC Biweekly UMC Roundup – Reform Dies in Committee Edition
The FTC’s Pre-Acquisition Review Requirement for All Meta Deals: Hyper-Regulatory, Anti-Free Market, Anti-Rule of Law, and Anti-Consumer
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants to review in advance all future acquisitions by Facebook parent Meta Platforms. According to a Sept. 2 Bloomberg report, in connection with its challenge to Meta’s acquisition of fitness-app maker Within Unlimited, the commission “has asked its in-house court to force both Meta and [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg to ... The FTC’s Pre-Acquisition Review Requirement for All Meta Deals: Hyper-Regulatory, Anti-Free Market, Anti-Rule of Law, and Anti-Consumer
Potential Rulemaking on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security: The FTC Must Use Cost-Benefit Analysis
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Aug. 22 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security (ANPRM) is breathtaking in its scope. For an overview summary, see this Aug. 11 FTC press release. In their dissenting statements opposing ANPRM’s release, Commissioners Noah Phillips and Christine Wilson expertly lay bare the notice’s serious deficiencies. ... Potential Rulemaking on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security: The FTC Must Use Cost-Benefit Analysis
What Antitrust Scholars Can Learn from the Bronze Age Collapse
There is an emerging debate regarding whether complexity theory—which, among other things, draws lessons about uncertainty and non-linearity from the natural sciences—should make inroads into antitrust (see, e.g., Nicolas Petit and Thibault Schrepel, 2022). Of course, one might also say that antitrust is already quite late to the party. Since the 1990s, complexity theory has ... What Antitrust Scholars Can Learn from the Bronze Age Collapse
Are All Mergers Inherently Anticompetitive?
A recent viral video captures a prevailing sentiment in certain corners of social media, and among some competition scholars, about how mergers supposedly work in the real world: firms start competing on price, one firm loses out, that firm agrees to sell itself to the other firm and, finally, prices are jacked up.(Warning: Keep the ... Are All Mergers Inherently Anticompetitive?
FTC Biweekly Roundup – A Change in Title Edition
You’d think things would be calm during these last weeks of August – the Senate in recess, folks wrapping up summer vacations or seeing their kids back off to school, and the big news being that coming out of the White House instead of Congress or the agencies. You’d think. We don’t have a single ... FTC Biweekly Roundup – A Change in Title Edition
