Showing archive for: “FTC”
Leave a Little GUPPI Alone: Why Commissioner Wright is Right to Call for a Low-GUPPI Safe Harbor
FTC Commissioner Josh Wright has some wise thoughts on how to handle a small GUPPI. I don’t mean the fish. Dissenting in part in the Commission’s disposition of the Family Dollar/Dollar Tree merger, Commissioner Wright calls for creating a safe harbor for mergers where the competitive concern is unilateral effects and the merger generates a ... Leave a Little GUPPI Alone: Why Commissioner Wright is Right to Call for a Low-GUPPI Safe Harbor
Commissioner Wright on the inappropriate use of structural presumptions in merger analysis & a great ABA program on the same
The FTC recently required divestitures in two merger investigations (here and here), based largely on the majority’s conclusion that [when] a proposed merger significantly increases concentration in an already highly concentrated market, a presumption of competitive harm is justified under both the Guidelines and well-established case law.” (Emphasis added). Commissioner Wright dissented in both matters ... Commissioner Wright on the inappropriate use of structural presumptions in merger analysis & a great ABA program on the same
New Paper: The Problems and Perils of Bootstrapping Privacy and Data into an Antitrust Framework
The CPI Antitrust Chronicle published Geoffrey Manne’s and my recent paper, The Problems and Perils of Bootstrapping Privacy and Data into an Antitrust Framework as part of a symposium on Big Data in the May 2015 issue. All of the papers are worth reading and pondering, but of course ours is the best ;). In it, ... New Paper: The Problems and Perils of Bootstrapping Privacy and Data into an Antitrust Framework
The FTC’s Cardinal Health Settlement is Bad Antitrust Medicine and Highlights the Need for Additional Antitrust Guidance
On April 17, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted three-to-two to enter into a consent agreement In the Matter of Cardinal Health, Inc., requiring Cardinal Health to disgorge funds as part of the settlement in this monopolization case. As ably explained by dissenting Commissioners Josh Wright and Maureen Ohlhausen, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ... The FTC’s Cardinal Health Settlement is Bad Antitrust Medicine and Highlights the Need for Additional Antitrust Guidance
The FTC, not the FCC, Should Police Internet Abuses
The FCC’s proposed “Open Internet Order,” which would impose heavy-handed “common carrier” regulation of Internet service providers (the Order is being appealed in federal court and there are good arguments for striking it down) in order to promote “net neutrality,” is fundamentally misconceived. If upheld, it will slow innovation, impose substantial costs, and harm consumers ... The FTC, not the FCC, Should Police Internet Abuses
The Dark Side of the FTC’s Latest Privacy Case, In the Matter of Nomi Technologies
Last week, the FTC announced its complaint and consent decree with Nomi Technologies for failing to allow consumers to opt-out of cell phone tracking while shopping in retail stores. Whatever one thinks about Nomi itself, the FTC’s enforcement action represents another step in the dubious application of its enforcement authority against deceptive statements. In response, ... The Dark Side of the FTC’s Latest Privacy Case, In the Matter of Nomi Technologies
The European Commission, Google, and the Limits of Antitrust
The precise details underlying the European Commission’s (EC) April 15 Statement of Objections (SO), the EC’s equivalent of an antitrust complaint, against Google, centered on the company’s promotion of its comparison shopping service (CSS), “Google Shopping,” have not yet been made public. Nevertheless, the EC’s fact sheet describing the theory of the case is most ... The European Commission, Google, and the Limits of Antitrust
The Ninth Circuit botched its efficiencies analysis in the FTC v St Lukes antitrust case
Earlier this week the International Center for Law & Economics, along with a group of prominent professors and scholars of law and economics, filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit seeking rehearing en banc of the court’s FTC, et al. v. St Luke’s case. ICLE, joined by the Medicaid Defense Fund, also filed an ... The Ninth Circuit botched its efficiencies analysis in the FTC v St Lukes antitrust case
North Carolina Dental and Protectionism: March 31 Heritage Foundation Presentation by FTC Commissioner Ohlhausen and March 30 Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum
In its February 25 North Carolina Dental v. Federal Trade Commission decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state regulatory board that is controlled by market participants in the industry being regulated cannot invoke “state action” antitrust immunity unless it is “actively supervised” by the state. Will this decision discourage harmful protectionist regulation, such ... North Carolina Dental and Protectionism: March 31 Heritage Foundation Presentation by FTC Commissioner Ohlhausen and March 30 Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum
FTC Staff Report on Google: Much Ado About Nothing
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the FTC Bureau of Competition staff report to the commissioners in the Google antitrust investigation recommended that the Commission approve an antitrust suit against the company. While this is excellent fodder for a few hours of Twitter hysteria, it takes more than 140 characters to delve into the ... FTC Staff Report on Google: Much Ado About Nothing
Innovation Death Panels and Other Economic Shortcomings of the White House Proposed Privacy Bill
In short, all of this hand-wringing over privacy is largely a tempest in a teapot — especially when one considers the extent to which the White House and other government bodies have studiously ignored the real threat: government misuse of data à la the NSA. It’s almost as if the White House is deliberately shifting the public's gaze from the reality of extensive government spying by directing it toward a fantasy world of nefarious corporations abusing private information…. The White House’s proposed bill is emblematic of many government “fixes” to largely non-existent privacy issues, and it exhibits the same core defects that undermine both its claims and its proposed solutions. As a result, the proposed bill vastly overemphasizes regulation to the dangerous detriment of the innovative benefits of Big Data for consumers and society at large.
March 31 Heritage Foundation Speech by FTC Commissioner Ohlhausen on U.S. Supreme Court’s North Carolina Dental Decision
In a recent post, I explained how the U.S. Supreme Court’s February 25 opinion in North Carolina Dental Board v. FTC (holding that a state regulatory board controlled by market participants must be “actively supervised” by the state to receive antitrust immunity) struck a significant blow against protectionist rent-seeking and for economic liberty. Maureen Ohlhausen, ... March 31 Heritage Foundation Speech by FTC Commissioner Ohlhausen on U.S. Supreme Court’s North Carolina Dental Decision
