Showing archive for: “Clayton Act”
Antitrust Standing Room Only
Antitrust law does not hand out damages just because someone got hurt in the general vicinity of an antitrust violation. A plaintiff must show more than bad conduct, more than lost money, and more than a plausible violation of the Sherman Act. The loss must come from the thing antitrust law exists to protect: competition. ... Antitrust Standing Room Only
The Case of the Vanishing Competitor
Spirit Airlines was supposed to be the competitor antitrust law saved. Instead, it may become the cautionary tale antitrust law cannot quite avoid. The carrier’s disappearance has transformed the JetBlue-Spirit merger litigation from an ordinary postmortem into a test case for how antitrust law should treat distressed challengers in concentrated network industries. Protecting Competition, Minus ... The Case of the Vanishing Competitor
Bad Medicine: Why Breaking Up Big Health Care Could Make It Worse
Washington has found its latest villain: “Big Medicine.” The proposed fix? Break it up and hope the pieces behave better than the whole. Americans have real reasons to be frustrated about high health care costs, and large conglomerates rank somewhere between unpopular and reviled—roughly where Microsoft’s “Clippy” sat in the 1990s. So it’s no surprise ... Bad Medicine: Why Breaking Up Big Health Care Could Make It Worse
Acquihires and Antitrust: When Buying the Team Isn’t Buying the Company
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has trained its sights on one of Silicon Valley’s most familiar deal structures: the “acquihire.” In a Bloomberg podcast interview, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said the agency plans to scrutinize how acquihires are structured—looking for features that could bring them within merger law and trigger Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) reporting thresholds. ... Acquihires and Antitrust: When Buying the Team Isn’t Buying the Company
From Discount to Discrimination: The Strange Economics of Anti-Competitive Antitrust
Antitrust has always been a strange regulatory enterprise. Businesses are largely free to engage in various commercial practices involving price, output, product design, distribution, research, and innovation—until they’re not. Outside the paradigmatic examples of explicit agreements among competitors to fix price and output, many business practices live in a gray zone. Whether a particular pricing ... From Discount to Discrimination: The Strange Economics of Anti-Competitive Antitrust
Vintage Statute, Sour Results: The Robinson-Patman Revival in FTC v. Southern Glazer’s
Toward the end of the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sought to revive the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 (RPA), a statute federal enforcers had largely shelved for three decades. The law is also enforceable by private plaintiffs who claim antitrust injury from RPA violations. Enacted during the Great Depression to shield small grocers ... Vintage Statute, Sour Results: The Robinson-Patman Revival in FTC v. Southern Glazer’s
Antitrust at the Agencies: More Process, Mo’ Money Edition
The White House announced a slate of administrative nominations Jan. 13, including David MacNeil—founder and CEO of WeatherTech—to fill the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seat vacated by Melissa Holyoak, who left last November to serve as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Utah. MacNeil made his fortune by importing and later manufacturing (here in ... Antitrust at the Agencies: More Process, Mo’ Money Edition
Antitrust at the Agencies: Meta Analysis Edition
The memorandum and order in FTC v. Meta Platforms Inc. that U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg filed Nov. 18, ruling in favor of Meta, has now been followed by a Dec. 2 revised order that contained fewer redactions. The memorandum doesn’t exactly provide the law & economics analysis I would have produced, had ... Antitrust at the Agencies: Meta Analysis Edition
Curbing Monopoly Union Abuses Benefits Workers and the Economy
U.S. labor unions have long enjoyed an antitrust exemption covering collective bargaining and related activities. But this exemption does not extend to anticompetitive monopolization undertaken by unions. Recent economic research demonstrates that the creation of monopoly unions may actually harm workers, in addition to undermining free-market competition. The administration may wish to consider a new ... Curbing Monopoly Union Abuses Benefits Workers and the Economy
Reducing Merger Uncertainty Could Help the American Economy
The second Trump administration has been signaling a move away from the Biden administration’s policy of actively discouraging mergers. This change in direction could benefit the U.S. economy. But some merger uncertainty remains, rooted in the administration’s decision to retain 2023 merger guidelines. Targeted revisions to those guidelines—or, at the very least, public pronouncements designed ... Reducing Merger Uncertainty Could Help the American Economy
M&A Enforcement Easing Under the Trump Administration
The federal antitrust agencies appear to be easing up on merger enforcement, ditching a Biden administration policy of discouraging mergers. This change in direction could promote enhanced American innovation and economic growth. M&A Economic Benefits Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) generate various major economic benefits: They reallocate badly managed commercial assets to higher-valued uses, raising business ... M&A Enforcement Easing Under the Trump Administration
New State Merger-Review Laws Could Harm US Economy
Various states are ramping up their review of proposed mergers and acquisitions. Both Washington and Colorado have enacted new pre-merger notification statutes that will take effect this summer, and other states have introduced or are considering similar legislation. These changes could impose major new costs on potential merging parties and harm the U.S. economy. In ... New State Merger-Review Laws Could Harm US Economy
