Showing results for: “loyalty discounts”
Response to Steve Salop on credit card antitrust
Steve’s post responding to me and Josh on antitrust exemptions and buyer cartels raised a number of interesting issues. A few points in response: 1. Constantine’s book is quite a measured look at the case (not). I love how he risked everything — everything! — for the case. He and the country’s other contingency fee ... Response to Steve Salop on credit card antitrust
Another Way DOJ Might Pursue "Vigorous Antitrust Enforcement in This Challenging Era"
DOJ’s top antitrust enforcer Christine Varney had hardly gotten settled in her office before she repudiated the existing DOJ guidelines on policing single-firm conduct. In the spirit of Rahm Emanuel’s famous “never let a serious crisis go to waste” directive, Ms. Varney invoked the current economic crisis as grounds for her decision to throw out ... Another Way DOJ Might Pursue "Vigorous Antitrust Enforcement in This Challenging Era"
Questioning the UK Competition Commission Ombudsman Plan
In April 2008, the UK Competition Commission issued its Final Report culminating from its grocery sector inquiry. Along with supermarket concentration, the concern that emerges out of that Report is that supermarkets will use their power to negotiate sharp deals with suppliers. For example: In emails from store buyers seized during its investigation, the Commission ... Questioning the UK Competition Commission Ombudsman Plan
EU Intel Fines Attract Rebuke
I’ve criticized the European Commission’s antitrust attack against Intel here and the resulting $1.44 billion fine. Now the EU is drawing fire for allegedly burying testimony, or at least failing to record it in a satisfactory manner, from Dell that it chose Intel’s chips not because of the coercive force of any of Intel’s rebates ... EU Intel Fines Attract Rebuke
Let's Have New Section 2 Hearings!
Commissioner Rosch has offered a defense of the withdraw of the Section 2 Report. This is an important step and the Commissioner, who readers know I’ve criticized from time to time here, should be credited for laying out his specific objections to the Report. The objections are, in short, that the Report: Was “too ambitious” ... Let's Have New Section 2 Hearings!
If A Tree Falls in a Forest and Nobody Hears It, Did the Bush Antitrust Division Cut It Down?
The NYT ran an unsigned editorial on “Intel and Competition” that, quite frankly, doesn’t make much sense to us. It offers two basic arguments: (1) that the Bush administration DOJ is responsible for the state of Section 2 law requirement that plaintiffs demonstrate actual consumer harm, and (2) that foreign antitrust jurisdictions’ pursuit of enforcement ... If A Tree Falls in a Forest and Nobody Hears It, Did the Bush Antitrust Division Cut It Down?
CPI Webinar: Economic and Legal Analysis of Collusion
Competition Policy International has announced its next Webinar, featuring Professors Bajari and Abrantes-Metz on the economic and legal analysis of collusion. I’ve had a blast doing these lectures the last couple of weeks teaching Antitrust Economics 101, and will be finishing up the third lecture this week (after covering basic demand side and supply side ... CPI Webinar: Economic and Legal Analysis of Collusion
The EU Intel Decision, Error Costs, and What Happens in the US?
Reacting to the EU fines imposed on Intel, Geoff raises a nice point about the difficulty of constructing the but-for world in antitrust cases generally, but particularly in cases where prices are falling. This discussion reminded me of Thom’s excellent post responding to the NYT editorial and an AAI working paper and putting theoretical anticompetitive ... The EU Intel Decision, Error Costs, and What Happens in the US?
Good Stuff (Including Josh Wright) on Intel in Today’s WSJ
Our own Josh Wright is quoted in the lead article in today’s Wall Street Journal. Josh opines that the European Union’s record $1.45 billion fine against Intel for lowering its prices on granting “exclusionary” rebates on microprocessors means that FTC action against Intel is “much more likely than it was two weeks ago.” And what ... Good Stuff (Including Josh Wright) on Intel in Today’s WSJ
Section 2 Report Quick Reactions
A few quick reactions to the repudiation of the Section 2 Report, and more importantly, what it means for the future of monopolization enforcement: First, the most disappointing thing about the withdraw of the Report and this announcement is that it is incredibly dismissive about the long hours of work put into this project by ... Section 2 Report Quick Reactions
Neo-Chicago Meets Evidence-Based Antitrust
Dan Crane has an excellent essay (“Chicago, Post-Chicago and Neo-Chicago“) reviewing Bob Pitofsky’s Overshot the Mark volume. Here’s Dan’s brief abstract: This essay reviews Bob Pitofsky’s 2008 essay compilation, How Chicago Overshot the Mark: The Effect of Conservative Economic Analysis on U.S. Antitrust. The essay critically evaluates the book’s rough handling of the Chicago School ... Neo-Chicago Meets Evidence-Based Antitrust
Section 2 Symposium: Alden Abbott on the International Perspective
As I indicated in my prior blog entry, U.S. competition policy vis-à-vis single firm conduct (“SFC”) is best viewed not in isolation, but, rather, in the context of other jurisdictions’ SFC enforcement philosophies, and efforts to promote greater SFC policy convergence worldwide. Given the proliferation of competition law regimes, firms that do business in multiple ... Section 2 Symposium: Alden Abbott on the International Perspective
