The Archives

The collection of all scholarly commentary on law, economics, and more

Showing results for:  “digital markets act”

The FTC should address how (and whether) it assesses causation as it looks to define “informational injury”

The FTC will hold an “Informational Injury Workshop” in December “to examine consumer injury in the context of privacy and data security.” Defining the scope of cognizable harm that may result from the unauthorized use or third-party hacking of consumer information is, to be sure, a crucial inquiry, particularly as ever-more information is stored digitally. ... The FTC should address how (and whether) it assesses causation as it looks to define “informational injury”

Louis De Alessi: Remembering Fred S. McChesney

Louis De Alessi is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Miami. Fred and I met when he enrolled in my graduate course in Microeconomic Theory at George Washington University. The class was small, I used a Socratic approach, and Fred — as you would expect – was an active participant, asking good questions ... Louis De Alessi: Remembering Fred S. McChesney

Bill MacLeod: A Personal Reflection on Fred McChesney

William C. MacLeod is a partner at Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP, where he chairs the firm’s Antitrust and Competition practice group. He is a former director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC. It is only with hindsight that we can appreciate the naïveté of conventional wisdom. In 1970, when Fred McChesney ... Bill MacLeod: A Personal Reflection on Fred McChesney

In Memoriam: Fred McChesney

As many Truth on the Market readers likely know, law and economics scholar, Fred McChesney, passed away last month. As we prepare to lay Fred to rest later this week, I have asked some of Fred’s friends and colleagues to contribute their thoughts about Fred’s life, and his influence as a scholar and as a ... In Memoriam: Fred McChesney

ICLE urges Supreme Court to review DC Circuit decision in Open Internet Order case

Today the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) submitted an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to review the DC Circuit’s 2016 decision upholding the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order. The brief was authored by Geoffrey A. Manne, Executive Director of ICLE, and Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska ... ICLE urges Supreme Court to review DC Circuit decision in Open Internet Order case

Inter Partes Review Jeopardizes the Social Contract between Drug Makers and Patients

It’s been six weeks since drug maker Allergan announced that it had assigned to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe the patents on Restasis, an Allergan drug challenged both in IPR proceedings and in Hatch-Waxman proceedings in federal district court.  The unorthodox agreement was intended to shield the patents from IPR proceedings (and thus restrict the ... Inter Partes Review Jeopardizes the Social Contract between Drug Makers and Patients

Strong Patent Protection Promotes Strong Economies

In her distinguished tenure as a Commissioner and as Acting Chairman of the FTC, Maureen Ohlhausen has done an outstanding job in explaining the tie between robust patent protection and economic growth and innovation (see, for example, her Harvard Journal of Law and Technology article, here).  Her latest public pronouncement on this topic, an October ... Strong Patent Protection Promotes Strong Economies

IMG-Learfield: An antitrust reality check on two-sided market mergers

Yesterday Learfield and IMG College inked their recently announced merger. Since the negotiations were made public several weeks ago, the deal has garnered some wild speculation and potentially negative attention. Now that the merger has been announced, it’s bound to attract even more attention and conjecture. On the field of competition, however, the market realities ... IMG-Learfield: An antitrust reality check on two-sided market mergers

Single Firm Conduct: European Competition Policy, the European Court of Justice, and Brexit

In recent years, the European Union’s (EU) administrative body, the European Commission (EC), increasingly has applied European competition law in a manner that undermines free market dynamics.  In particular, its approach to “dominant” firm conduct disincentivizes highly successful companies from introducing product and service innovations that enhance consumer welfare and benefit the economy – merely ... Single Firm Conduct: European Competition Policy, the European Court of Justice, and Brexit

Developing an Economically Efficient American Trade Policy to Deal with Distortionary Government Subsidies: Brexit and Beyond

U.S. international trade law has various statutory mechanisms to deal with unfair competition.  Regrettably, American trade law (and, for that matter, the trade laws of other nations) has a history of being deployed in a mercantilist fashion to further the interests of American producer interests, rather than consumer interests and aggregate economic welfare.  That need ... Developing an Economically Efficient American Trade Policy to Deal with Distortionary Government Subsidies: Brexit and Beyond

The antitrust laws are not some meta-legislation authorizing whatever regulation activists want: Labor market edition

In a recent post at the (appallingly misnamed) ProMarket blog (the blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business — George Stigler is rolling in his grave…), Marshall Steinbaum keeps alive the hipster-antitrust assertion that lax antitrust enforcement — this time in the labor market — is to blame ... The antitrust laws are not some meta-legislation authorizing whatever regulation activists want: Labor market edition

The Allergan-Mohawk deal: An ingenious strategy to avoid an unbalanced IPR process

Last Friday, drug maker Allergan and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe announced that they had reached an agreement under which Allergan assigned the patents on its top-selling drug Restasis to the tribe and, in return, Allergan was given the exclusive license on the Restasis patents so that it can continue producing and distributing the drug.  ... The Allergan-Mohawk deal: An ingenious strategy to avoid an unbalanced IPR process