Showing archive for: “Tying & Bundling”
The Bundle of All Fears: India’s Risky War on Integration
Good intentions make for lousy competition law when they are stapled to bad economics. That is the trouble with the new fashion in digital regulation: It treats integration as suspicion, product design as coercion, and innovation as something firms may pursue only after regulators decide it is sufficiently tidy. The European Union’s Digital Markets Act ... The Bundle of All Fears: India’s Risky War on Integration
OECD Cloud-Computing Competition Study Offers Solutions in Search of a Problem
A recent Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy paper on competition in cloud computing frames the sector as fragile, with an imminent threat of anticompetitive behavior. As the paper notes, 70-80% of the global cloud share is controlled by Microsoft, AWS (Amazon Web Services), and Google. This paints the picture of a concentrated ... OECD Cloud-Computing Competition Study Offers Solutions in Search of a Problem
Forced Sharing: Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks?
Recent headlines about the U.S. Justice Department’s (DOJ) antitrust case targeting Google Search echo a familiar policy script. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Thomas Lenard and Scott Wallsten warn that forcing Google to share its technology could undermine innovation—a lesson they say we should have learned from telecommunications policy decades ago. In 1996, ... Forced Sharing: Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks?
The Silly Season in Antitrust: The Hermès Case
For six generations, Hermès has epitomized French luxury, making and selling its iconic scarves, belts, jewelry, and, of course, handbags. Some Hermès products, including its Birkin and Kelly bags, are so exclusive that they can’t be bought off the shelf. Customers first have to establish a relationship with the house to purchase these specialty bags. ... The Silly Season in Antitrust: The Hermès Case
Draft Merger Guidelines Do Not ‘Return Antitrust to a Sound Economic and Legal Foundation’ – A Response to Professor Kwoka
In a recently published article in ProMarket, John Kwoka of Northeastern University (who “worked on the draft Merger Guidelines while serving at the Federal Trade Commission as chief economist to the chair in 2022”) asserts that the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) draft merger guidelines aim to improve “deficient merger enforcement” ... Draft Merger Guidelines Do Not ‘Return Antitrust to a Sound Economic and Legal Foundation’ – A Response to Professor Kwoka
FTC Section 5 Statement: Less Guidance Than Meets the Eye
On Nov. 10, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a new statement explaining how it will exercise its standalone FTC Act Section 5 authority. Despite the length of the statement and the accompanying commentaries from most of the commissioners, there is less guidance than one might expect from so many words. One thing is clear, ... FTC Section 5 Statement: Less Guidance Than Meets the Eye
FTC Biweekly UMC Roundup – Mountain of Puffery Edition
Research still matters, so I recommend video from the Federal Trade Commission’s 15th Annual Microeconomics Conference, if you’ve not already seen it. It’s a valuable event, and it’s part of the FTC’s still important statutory-research mission. It also reminds me that the FTC’s excellent, if somewhat diminished, Bureau of Economics still has no director; Marta ... FTC Biweekly UMC Roundup – Mountain of Puffery Edition
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
The Bitter Fruits of Federal Antitrust ‘Reform’ Legislation
Much ink has been spilled regarding the potential harm to the economy and to the rule of law that could stem from enactment of the primary federal antitrust legislative proposal, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) (see here). AICOA proponents, of course, would beg to differ, emphasizing the purported procompetitive benefits of limiting ... The Bitter Fruits of Federal Antitrust ‘Reform’ Legislation
The ABA’s Antitrust Law Section Sounds the Alarm on Klobuchar-Grassley
Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)—cosponsors of the American Innovation Online and Choice Act, which seeks to “rein in” tech companies like Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon—contend that “everyone acknowledges the problems posed by dominant online platforms.” In their framing, it is simply an acknowledged fact that U.S. antitrust law has not kept ... The ABA’s Antitrust Law Section Sounds the Alarm on Klobuchar-Grassley
How the FTC Could, but Won’t, Use Its Rulemaking Authority to Allow Aftermarket Parts
We used to have a robust aftermarket for non-original equipment manufacturer (OEM) automobile repair parts and “independent” repair services, but car companies have increasingly resorted to design-patent protection to prevent competition in the supply of cosmetic repair parts such as bumpers, hoods, panels, and mirrors. The predictable and intended consequence has been to raise prices ... How the FTC Could, but Won’t, Use Its Rulemaking Authority to Allow Aftermarket Parts
Rules Without Reason
In his July Executive Order, President Joe Biden called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider making a series of rules under its purported authority to regulate “unfair methods of competition.”[1] Chair Lina Khan has previously voiced her support for doing so.[2] My view is that the Commission has no such rulemaking powers, and ... Rules Without Reason
