Showing archive for: “Antitrust”
Nothing Runs Like a Deere You Can Repair
Farmers have won the right to repair—at least, if they own John Deere equipment. In July, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement requiring Deere to give farmers and independent repair shops access to the software, manuals, and other resources needed to fix its products. The settlement sensibly balances consumers’ immediate interest in affordable ... Nothing Runs Like a Deere You Can Repair
Location, Location, Litigation: The Antitrust Fight Over Private Listings
In the late 1800s, real estate agents gathered at local associations to exchange information about the homes they were trying to sell. The intuitive logic was that the best way to make a sale was to spread the word. The real estate market has evolved considerably since then, but buyers and sellers, typically through their ... Location, Location, Litigation: The Antitrust Fight Over Private Listings
Four Patents and a Time Machine: CareFirst and the Perils of Backdated Antitrust
Four patents can carry a lot of antitrust baggage—especially when they come tucked inside a portfolio of more than 500. In CareFirst of Maryland v. Johnson & Johnson, health insurer CareFirst alleges that Johnson & Johnson unlawfully acquired and later asserted four patents to delay competition from biosimilars, highly similar alternatives to biologic drugs, for ... Four Patents and a Time Machine: CareFirst and the Perils of Backdated Antitrust
Cartels With Benefits: The Trouble With Extending Labor’s Antitrust Exemption
Antitrust law’s usual instruction to competitors who agree on price is admirably brief: Don’t. Labor law makes a deliberate exception for employees who bargain collectively. Advocates now want that exception to cover at least some independent contractors, including rideshare drivers, truck owner-operators, consultants, and other small-business owners. The proposal may sound like a tidy way ... Cartels With Benefits: The Trouble With Extending Labor’s Antitrust Exemption
Open Weights, Closed Ranks: The AI Manifesto War
The AI industry has entered its manifesto era. Executives, researchers, and employees are issuing rival plans to keep advanced models safe. The fine print contains a less advertised question: Would those plans protect the public—or protect today’s leaders from the open models gaining on them? That competition question starts with open-source AI models. These models ... Open Weights, Closed Ranks: The AI Manifesto War
Too Many Cooks Spoil the Settlement
In American antitrust, clearing the federal gate increasingly means arriving at the state turnstiles. State attorneys general play a valuable role when harms are local or federal investigators miss key facts. But serial challenges to nationally integrated conduct turn that safeguard into a standing invitation to relitigate. The result is a system in which no ... Too Many Cooks Spoil the Settlement
The FTC’s AI Accuracy Statement Needs a Fact Check
A policy statement about accuracy should, at minimum, be precise. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Proposed Policy Statement Concerning the Suppression of Accuracy in Artificial Intelligence Systems (AI Policy Statement) struggles with that assignment. The International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) submitted comments in response to the FTC’s request for input, and this post ... The FTC’s AI Accuracy Statement Needs a Fact Check
The Price of Peace in the Swipe-Fee Wars
After 21 years, two failed settlements, and enough economic testimony to qualify as its own industry, the great interchange-fee war may finally be nearing a cease-fire. The terms are imperfect, and the case never had much economic merit. Even so, the proposed settlement may offer the best available escape from a dispute whose legislative sequels ... The Price of Peace in the Swipe-Fee Wars
New Jersey’s War on Pricing Software Won’t Build More Apartments
When rents rise, blaming the algorithm is easier than building apartments. New Jersey has chosen the easier target. On July 20, Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed the Forbidding the Algorithmic Inflation of Rent Act, or FAIR Act, declaring that landlords who use shared pricing tools are engaging in “collusion by algorithm.” The phrase is built for ... New Jersey’s War on Pricing Software Won’t Build More Apartments
The SEARCH Act Copies Europe’s Homework—and Its Mistakes
Some in Congress want to make online search more competitive by deciding in advance how search competition should work. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) introduced the Securing Enforcement of Americans’ Right to Competition at Home (SEARCH) Act earlier this month. Billed as a bipartisan effort to protect consumers and curb Big Tech’s ... The SEARCH Act Copies Europe’s Homework—and Its Mistakes
Competition Law’s Fairness Gap: Why Better Procedure Requires Better Incentives
Everyone agrees competition enforcement should be fair. Agreement gets shakier once fairness starts costing agencies time, discretion, or victories. Competition authorities often warn that procedure should not become an obstacle to enforcement. Fair enough. Antitrust investigations can be slow, document-heavy, and vulnerable to delay tactics. A firm with deep pockets may try to turn “process” ... Competition Law’s Fairness Gap: Why Better Procedure Requires Better Incentives
AICOA Rises from the Grave, Still Looking for a Theory of Harm
AICOA is back from the dead, and this time it has learned a few new tricks—mostly how to lower liability thresholds, raise defense burdens, and keep treating “Big Tech” as if capitalization were a theory of harm. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act has failed twice before. Its latest incarnation is not so much ... AICOA Rises from the Grave, Still Looking for a Theory of Harm
