Showing archive for: “Collusion & Cartels”
Antitrust under President Obama: "I will direct my administration to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement"
Danny Sokol makes some predictions about Post-Obama antitrust, and about my disappointment in what he perceives to be the likely direction of antitrust policy in the Obama administration: 1. increased challenges of mergers and monopolization cases, especially at DOJ 2. more consumer protection work at the FTC with a push to more expansive consumer rights ... Antitrust under President Obama: "I will direct my administration to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement"
Teaching Antitrust
I’m two weeks into the semester here at UT, and the antitrust course. I’ve made a few changes to the course this year. Specifically, I’m using the new 2nd edition of the Gavil, Kovacic and Baker. So far so good on that front on adjusting to the new edition. Its an excellent textbook. In large ... Teaching Antitrust
Optimal Regulatory Design, Fragmentation, and Abolition
In response to my post about the optimal institutional design for merger enforcement and the problems associated with dual federal enforcement, a reader points me to this related paper by Jon Klick, Francesco Parisi, and Norbert Schulz in the International Review of Law and Economics which models alternatives for allocating decision-making across multiple agencies. One ... Optimal Regulatory Design, Fragmentation, and Abolition
Evaluating "Long Term Advisors" and "Short Term Interventions"
My colleague Danny Sokol has posted An Empirical Evaluation of Long Term Advisors and Short Term Interventions in Technical Assistance and Capacity Building to SSRN. The abstract for the paper, which is co-authored by Kyle Stiegert, follows: Technical assistance to improve the capacity of regulatory agencies around the world remains a key priority for international ... Evaluating "Long Term Advisors" and "Short Term Interventions"
Amateurism Is What We Do!
Yesterday, the NCAA settled a horizontal price fixing class action case initiated by former basketball and football players (here, here, and here). It’s nice to see the student-athletes get something, but I wish they would have received more. The suit deals with the difference between the NCAA’s grant-in-aid (GIA) cap and the full cost of ... Amateurism Is What We Do!
Antitrust Enforcement Levels and Quality Again: A Hypothetical Conversation
I’ve done some more thinking about my recent post on the problems associated with claims that infer greater antitrust enforcement quality solely from enforcement activity and come to the conclusion that my post oversimplified matters. I remain rather skeptical about this inference but wanted to highlight some of the nuances in the debate that I ... Antitrust Enforcement Levels and Quality Again: A Hypothetical Conversation
Antitrust News at GW Law
GW Law received a $5.1 million award to fund a Center for Competition Law resulting from the settlement of a class-action antitrust suit brought by Michael Hausfield (of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C., and a GW alum). According to the press release, Hausfeld argued that the Center would focus on the “special challenges to traditional antitrust ... Antitrust News at GW Law
Dr. Miles (1911-2007)
So Dr. Miles is dead. May he rest in peace. No great surprises in the majority opinion in Leegin. Justice Kennedy, quite rightly, emphasized points we have asserted numerous times on this blog. Most notably: The per se rule should be reserved for practices that are always, or almost always, anticompetitive. The common law nature ... Dr. Miles (1911-2007)
Cass on Leegin
Ronald Cass, dean emeritus of Boston University Law School, argues in today’s WSJ that the Supreme Court should overrule Dr. Miles: The decision was a mistake that has plagued antitrust law and American business ever since. Manufacturers have no interest in suppressing price competition to help increase profits for retailers. A manufacturer with a meaningful ... Cass on Leegin
Bye Bye, Dr. Miles.
So it looks like Dr. Miles is going down. That’s a good thing. For non-antitrusters, Dr. Miles is a 1911 Supreme Court decision holding that “minimum vertical resale price maintenance” is per se illegal — that is, automatically illegal without inquiry into the practice’s actual effect on competition. Minimum vertical resale price maintenance (or “RPM”) ... Bye Bye, Dr. Miles.
No, Matt, executive compensation is not all about norms
[UPDATE: In order to avoid linking glitches we removed the quotes from around the phrase, “all about norms” in the original title. This post thus has a different url than the original but is otherwise the same.] In a post titled, “Backdating: Yes, Virginia, Execs Do Want Inflated Pay,â€? over at PrawfsBlawg, Matt Bodie weighs ... No, Matt, executive compensation is not all about norms
Hovenkamp on the Indirect Purchaser Rule
I’ve had the pleasure of spending the last few weeks curled up with Herbert Hovenkamp’s wonderful new book, The Antitrust Enterprise: Principle and Execution, which I’m reviewing for the Texas Law Review. Hovenkamp is a sharp thinker and a wonderfully clear writer, and the book is a fantastic read for scholars and students alike. As ... Hovenkamp on the Indirect Purchaser Rule
