Showing archive for: “Labor & Monopsony”
Prime Targets: Amazon, No-Poach Rules, and the Limits of Antitrust
The State of New Jersey’s antitrust case against Amazon begins with a serious allegation: that Amazon restricted drivers from moving among competing delivery contractors. But the state’s complaint goes much farther. It argues that Amazon’s entire Delivery Service Partner (DSP) system unlawfully gives the company monopsony power over both the small businesses that deliver its ... Prime Targets: Amazon, No-Poach Rules, and the Limits of Antitrust
Killer Theories and Acqui-Hire Alibis
Antitrust agencies have a habit of giving new labels to old anxieties. In artificial intelligence, the latest worry is that partnerships between large technology firms and startups are not partnerships at all, but mergers in clever disguises. In the first article in this series, we examined how Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) has ... Killer Theories and Acqui-Hire Alibis
Brazil Catches the Acqui-Hire Wave
The global antitrust wave over Big Tech’s artificial intelligence deals has reached Brazil. The question is whether Brazil’s competition authority is paddling into a real breaker—or mistaking regulatory chop for a swell. Last month, Brazil’s antitrust authority, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), entered that debate. It issued part of its long-awaited decisions on ... Brazil Catches the Acqui-Hire Wave
Gotta Catch ’Em All? Antitrust and the AI Talent Wars
The AI talent wars have produced a steady stream of stories that seem tailor-made to confirm everyone’s worst suspicions about Big Tech: nine-figure pay packages for star researchers, entire startup teams absorbed without a formal acquisition, and—most strikingly—reports of elite AI scientists paid handsomely to do nothing for a year under “garden leave” arrangements rather ... Gotta Catch ’Em All? Antitrust and the AI Talent Wars
The AI Jobs Panic Comes to Sacramento
California has seen the future of work, and Sacramento’s first instinct is to convene 14 task forces about it. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-6-26 today, setting California’s workforce agencies in motion on directives involving research reviews, revisions to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, studies of new safety-net programs, a ... The AI Jobs Panic Comes to Sacramento
Why Humans Are (Probably) Not Headed for the Glue Factory
There’s a popular argument that AI will do to human workers what tractors did to horses. Tractors could do what horses did. Horses became obsolete. AI can do what humans do. Therefore… Plenty of major AI figures seem to agree. Elon Musk says AI will “replace all jobs.” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei regularly warns about ... Why Humans Are (Probably) Not Headed for the Glue Factory
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
AI’s Scientific Ethos and the Moat That Wouldn’t Hold
Google may have built the foundation of the modern AI economy—and then published the instructions. In 2017, eight researchers across Google’s Brain and Research divisions released a paper titled “Attention Is All You Need.” What followed is now familiar: a technological inflection point, rapid diffusion, and an explosion of competitors building on the same core ... AI’s Scientific Ethos and the Moat That Wouldn’t Hold
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
The Hype Cycle Meets Malpractice Law: Why the Jobs Persist
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, recently declared that “50% of all entry-level lawyers, consultants, and finance professionals will be completely wiped out within the next 1–5 years.” That’s a remarkable claim—and probably wrong in a way that reveals something important about the gap between what AI can do and what the economy will actually do ... The Hype Cycle Meets Malpractice Law: Why the Jobs Persist
Acquihires and Other Antitrust Ghost Stories
Merger-control debates tend to repeat themselves. As new transaction forms emerge, regulators often move quickly to respond before harm becomes irreversible. Over the past decade, this pattern played out in debates over “killer acquisitions,” and earlier, minority shareholdings. Today, a similar dynamic surrounds so-called “acquihires.” Acquihires are transactions aimed primarily at acquiring a firm’s workforce, ... Acquihires and Other Antitrust Ghost Stories
Antitrust at the Agencies: Vacaturs and Vacancies Edition
Gail Slater has left the building. And that’s a shame, I think. On Feb. 12, Slater posted the following on X: It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today. It was indeed the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role. Huge thanks to ... Antitrust at the Agencies: Vacaturs and Vacancies Edition
