Showing archive for: “FTC”
Why a Common Law Approach to Defining “Unfair Methods of Competition” Won’t Work
Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act proclaims that “[u]nfair methods of competition . . . are hereby declared unlawful.” The FTC has exclusive authority to enforce that provision and uses it to prosecute Sherman Act violations. The Commission also uses the provision to prosecute conduct that doesn’t violate the Sherman Act but is, ... Why a Common Law Approach to Defining “Unfair Methods of Competition” Won’t Work
Antitrust Enforcement in Reverse: Getting Efficiencies Backwards
A century ago Congress enacted the Clayton Act, which prohibits acquisitions that may substantially lessen competition. For years, the antitrust enforcement Agencies looked at only one part of the ledger – the potential for price increases. Agencies didn’t take into account the potential efficiencies in cost savings, better products, services, and innovation. One of the major ... Antitrust Enforcement in Reverse: Getting Efficiencies Backwards
Swimming Against the Tide: The FTC’s Misguided Antagonism to Health Care Integration
There is a consensus in America that we need to control health care costs and improve the delivery of health care. After a long debate on health care reform and careful scrutiny of health care markets, there seems to be agreement that the unintegrated, “siloed approach” to health care is inefficient, costly, and contrary to ... Swimming Against the Tide: The FTC’s Misguided Antagonism to Health Care Integration
A Cost-Benefit Prescription for FTC Online Data Security Regulation
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continues to expand its presence in online data regulation. On August 13 the FTC announced a forthcoming workshop to explore appropriate policies toward “big data,” a term used to refer to advancing technologies that are dramatically expanding the commercial collection, analysis, use, and storage of data. This initiative follows ... A Cost-Benefit Prescription for FTC Online Data Security Regulation
New Paper on SSOs, SEP and Antitrust by Joanna Tsai & Joshua Wright
An important new paper was recently posted to SSRN by Commissioner Joshua Wright and Joanna Tsai. It addresses a very hot topic in the innovation industries: the role of patented innovation in standard setting organizations (SSO), what are known as standard essential patents (SEP), and whether the nature of the contractual commitment that adheres to a ... New Paper on SSOs, SEP and Antitrust by Joanna Tsai & Joshua Wright
Microsoft’s Android Anathema
Microsoft wants you to believe that Google’s business practices stifle competition and harm consumers. Again. The latest volley in its tiresome and ironic campaign to bludgeon Google with the same regulatory club once used against Microsoft itself is the company’s effort to foment an Android-related antitrust case in Europe. In a recent polemic, Microsoft consultant (and business ... Microsoft’s Android Anathema
Highlights from Josh Wright’s Interview in The Antitrust Source
Anyone interested in antitrust enforcement policy (and what TOTM reader isn’t?) should read FTC Commissioner Josh Wright’s interview in the latest issue of The Antitrust Source. The extensive (22 page!) interview covers a number of topics and demonstrates the positive influence Commissioner Wright is having on antitrust enforcement and competition policy in general. Commissioner Wright’s ... Highlights from Josh Wright’s Interview in The Antitrust Source
How to Reform Operation Choke Point
“Operation Choke Point” (OCP) is an interdepartmental initiative by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and federal financial services regulators to discourage financial intermediaries from dealing with consumer fraud-plagued industries. In an August 4 Heritage Foundation Legal Memorandum, I discuss the misapplication of this potentially beneficial project and recommend possible measures to reform OCP. If ... How to Reform Operation Choke Point
New Heritage Study Highlights Anticompetitive Features of Obamacare and Points the Way to Needed Reforms
A study released today by the Heritage Foundation (authored by Christopher M. Pope) succinctly describes the inherently anticompetitive nature of Obamacare, which will tend to inflate prices, not reduce costs: “The growth of monopoly power among health care providers bears much responsibility for driving up the cost of health care over recent years. By mandating ... New Heritage Study Highlights Anticompetitive Features of Obamacare and Points the Way to Needed Reforms
Joshua Wright, Martin Gaynor and Past FTC Officials to Speak at ICLE Event on Apple and Amazon Cases
The Federal Trade Commission’s recent enforcement actions against Amazon and Apple raise important questions about the FTC’s consumer protection practices, especially its use of economics. How does the Commission weigh the costs and benefits of its enforcement decisions? How does the agency employ economic analysis in digital consumer protection cases generally? Join the International Center ... Joshua Wright, Martin Gaynor and Past FTC Officials to Speak at ICLE Event on Apple and Amazon Cases
CONDITIONAL PRICING PRACTICES AND THE LIMITS OF ANTITRUST
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) June 23 Workshop on Conditional Pricing Practices featured a broad airing of views on loyalty discounts and bundled pricing, popular vertical business practices that recently have caused much ink to be spilled by the antitrust commentariat. In addition to predictable academic analyses featuring alternative theoretical anticompetitive effects stories, the Workshop ... CONDITIONAL PRICING PRACTICES AND THE LIMITS OF ANTITRUST
Occupational Licensing, Competition, and the Constitution: Prospects for Reform?
U.S. antitrust law focuses primarily on private anticompetitive restraints, leaving the most serious impediments to a vibrant competitive process – government-initiated restraints – relatively free to flourish. Thus the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should be commended for its July 16 congressional testimony that spotlights a fast-growing and particularly pernicious species of (largely state) government restriction ... Occupational Licensing, Competition, and the Constitution: Prospects for Reform?
