Showing results for: “digital markets act”
Will the European Commission’s Google Android Decision Benefit Consumers?
By Pinar Akman, Professor of Law, University of Leeds* The European Commission’s decision in Google Android cuts a fine line between punishing a company for its success and punishing a company for falling afoul of the rules of the game. Which side of the line it actually falls on cannot be fully understood until the ... Will the European Commission’s Google Android Decision Benefit Consumers?
The EU’s Google Android antitrust decision falls prey to the nirvana fallacy
Today the European Commission launched its latest salvo against Google, issuing a decision in its three-year antitrust investigation into the company’s agreements for distribution of the Android mobile operating system. The massive fine levied by the Commission will dominate the headlines, but the underlying legal theory and proposed remedies are just as notable — and ... The EU’s Google Android antitrust decision falls prey to the nirvana fallacy
Why the EU’s Google Android Antitrust Fine May Harm R&D and Innovation
Regardless of which standard you want to apply to competition law – consumer welfare, total welfare, hipster, or redneck antitrust – it’s never good when competition/antitrust agencies are undermining innovation. Yet, this is precisely what the European Commission is doing. Today, the agency announced a €4.34 billion fine against Alphabet (Google). It represents more than ... Why the EU’s Google Android Antitrust Fine May Harm R&D and Innovation
Why the Commission’s Google Android decision harms competition and stifles innovation
Our story begins on the morning of January 9, 2007. Few people knew it at the time, but the world of wireless communications was about to change forever. Steve Jobs walked on stage wearing his usual turtleneck, and proceeded to reveal the iPhone. The rest, as they say, is history. The iPhone moved the wireless ... Why the Commission’s Google Android decision harms competition and stifles innovation
Correcting the Federalist Society Review’s Mischaracterization of How to Regulate
Ours is not an age of nuance. It’s an age of tribalism, of teams—“Yer either fer us or agin’ us!” Perhaps I should have been less surprised, then, when I read the unfavorable review of my book How to Regulate in, of all places, the Federalist Society Review. I had expected some positive feedback from ... Correcting the Federalist Society Review’s Mischaracterization of How to Regulate
A big year for business and economics in the courts, even if we’re not talking about Janus
This has been a big year for business in the courts. A U.S. district court approved the AT&T-Time Warner merger, the Supreme Court upheld Amex’s agreements with merchants, and a circuit court pushed back on the Federal Trade Commission’s vague and heavy handed policing of companies’ consumer data safeguards. These three decisions mark a new ... A big year for business and economics in the courts, even if we’re not talking about Janus
Dear Antitrusters: Bias Is Ubiquitous. Stick to the Merits.
A recent tweet by Lina Khan, discussing yesterday’s American Express decision, exemplifies an unfortunate trend in contemporary antitrust discourse. Khan wrote: The economists cited by the Second Circuit (whose opinion SCOTUS affirms) for the analysis of ‘two-sided’ [markets] all had financial links to the credit card sector, as we point out in FN 4 [link ... Dear Antitrusters: Bias Is Ubiquitous. Stick to the Merits.
Weekend reads: Big is bad edition
Big is bad, part 1: Kafka, Coase, and Brandeis walk into a bar … There’s a quip in a well-known textbook that Nobel laureate Ronald Coase said he’d grown weary of antitrust because when prices went up, the judges said it was monopoly; when the prices went down, they said it was predatory pricing; and ... Weekend reads: Big is bad edition
Will the European Commission Reduce the Incentive to Innovate?
The EC’s Android decision is expected sometime in the next couple of weeks. Current speculation is that the EC may issue a fine exceeding last year’s huge 2.4B EU fine for Google’s alleged antitrust violations related to the display of general search results. Based on the statement of objections (“SO”), I expect the Android decision ... Will the European Commission Reduce the Incentive to Innovate?
For LabMD, the Devil Is in the Not-So-Well Specified Details
The Eleventh Circuit’s LabMD opinion came out last week and has been something of a rorschach test for those of us who study consumer protection law. Neil Chilson found the result to be a disturbing sign of slippage in Congress’s command that the FTC refrain from basing enforcement on “public policy.” Berin Szóka, on the ... For LabMD, the Devil Is in the Not-So-Well Specified Details
AT&T-Time Warner merger approved
AT&T’s merger with Time Warner has lead to one of the most important, but least interesting, antitrust trials in recent history. The merger itself is somewhat unimportant to consumers. It’s about a close to a “pure” vertical merger as we can get in today’s world and would not lead to a measurable increase in prices ... AT&T-Time Warner merger approved
More on a possible Comcast/Fox deal: Reports of the death of vertical mergers have been greatly exaggerated
A few weeks ago I posted a preliminary assessment of the relative antitrust risk of a Comcast vs Disney purchase of 21st Century Fox assets. (Also available in pdf as an ICLE Issue brief, here). On the eve of Judge Leon’s decision in the AT&T/Time Warner merger case, it seems worthwhile to supplement that assessment by ... More on a possible Comcast/Fox deal: Reports of the death of vertical mergers have been greatly exaggerated
