Showing archive for: “Contracts & Commercial Law”
Two Years, 57 Pages, No Merger: Amazon, Anthropic, and Brazil’s Filing Problem
The wave of artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships and “acqui-hires”—deals to acquire a company’s talent—has reached Brazil. The tribunal of Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) decided its first batch of such cases involving large technology firms and AI startups in May. A second round followed in September with Amazon/Anthropic—the would-be merger that turned out ... Two Years, 57 Pages, No Merger: Amazon, Anthropic, and Brazil’s Filing Problem
Much Ado About No News: Australia’s Latest Plan to Make Platforms Pay
Australia’s latest plan to make digital platforms pay for journalism has an unusual feature. A platform can owe money even if it carries no journalism at all. The government calls this an “incentive.” On Aug. 3, the Australian government finalized legislation establishing the News Bargaining Incentive (NBI). The government first proposed the NBI in December ... Much Ado About No News: Australia’s Latest Plan to Make Platforms Pay
Pulling the 39% Thread: Why the FCC Must Fix More Than the Broadcast Cap
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 39% broadcast-ownership cap is a rule for a three-network world trying to govern a streaming one. Retiring it makes sense. Retiring it by itself does not. For four decades, the FCC has barred any company from owning television stations that collectively reach more than 39% of U.S. television households. The ... Pulling the 39% Thread: Why the FCC Must Fix More Than the Broadcast Cap
Chatrie and the Court’s Pretzel Logic: The Fourth Amendment Gets Twisted
The Supreme Court just told police they cannot turn your phone into a witness against you merely because you walked through the wrong patch of pavement. That is the good news. The less comforting news is that the Court reached that result by dragging some badly aging Fourth Amendment doctrine along for the ride. In ... Chatrie and the Court’s Pretzel Logic: The Fourth Amendment Gets Twisted
Texas Wants to Check Your App Store Papers
Smartphones are no longer just phones. For kids, they are libraries, newspapers, classrooms, cameras, maps, town squares, and, yes, bottomless distraction machines. Texas Senate Bill 2420 treats access to all of it as something that should first pass through a state-mandated checkpoint. Also known as the App Store Accountability Act, SB 2420 is currently facing ... Texas Wants to Check Your App Store Papers
WarGames, Shopping Bots, and the Statute Trap: The CFAA and Amazon v Perplexity
When the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral argument later today in Amazon.com Services LLC v. Perplexity AI, Inc., it will confront a novel question: how should the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a statute designed to punish computer break-ins, apply to an AI agent that browses the web on a user’s ... WarGames, Shopping Bots, and the Statute Trap: The CFAA and Amazon v Perplexity
SpaceX and the New Geography of Corporate Governance
SpaceX may soon ask public investors to buy a piece of the future. The fine print may ask them to buy something else, too: a theory of corporate governance. The company’s reported initial public offering (IPO) has already drawn significant concern from institutional investors and corporate-governance observers. That concern is understandable. SpaceX reportedly seeks to ... SpaceX and the New Geography of Corporate Governance
Reverse Patent Pools and Other TTBER Tall Tales
In standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing, every procedural tweak is also a skirmish over bargaining power. That is what makes licensing negotiation groups (LNGs) more than an obscure acronym in the European Commission’s 2026 Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER) and accompanying Guidelines (TTGs). LNGs would allow technology implementers to bargain collectively with rights holders. Depending ... Reverse Patent Pools and Other TTBER Tall Tales
From Competition to Exclusion: Can Discounts Go Too Far?
When does a discount cross the line from competition to exclusion? That question now sits before a federal district court weighing the U.S. Justice Department’s (DOJ) antitrust case against Visa Inc. and its debit-card business, where Visa holds a 60% share. In the waning days of the Biden administration, on Sept. 24, 2024, the DOJ ... From Competition to Exclusion: Can Discounts Go Too Far?
‘Market Power in Antitrust: Economic Analysis after Kodak,’ by Benjamin Klein
In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services that a firm without market power in photocopiers might still possess market power in photocopier parts and service. The Court’s logic turned on opportunistic hold-up: Kodak could profit by trading short-run exploitation of locked-in customers for long-run losses in equipment ... ‘Market Power in Antitrust: Economic Analysis after Kodak,’ by Benjamin Klein
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
100% Guaranteed (Not a Guarantee): Putting a Price on Truth
In a seventh-season episode of The Simpsons, Bart tunes in to the Impulse Buying Network and spends $350 on an animation cel from The Itchy & Scratchy Show. As part of the pitch, an IBN huckster proclaims: “Each one is absolutely positively 100% guaranteed to increase in value!” An immediate disclaimer follows: “not a guarantee.” ... 100% Guaranteed (Not a Guarantee): Putting a Price on Truth
