Self-preferencing by a powerful service provider is usually analyzed as constituting an exclusionary abuse of market power. Examples of this kind of abuse might include the provider manipulating search and recommendation rankings to favor its own goods over close competitors (Google Shopping case) or integrating its own applications into an operating system that artificially worsens the performance of competing software (Microsoft case; Android case). This focus stands in line with the practice of competition authorities and courts on both sides of the Atlantic, and we are not denying that it represents an important avenue of competition policy enforcement.

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The dumbest economics discussion over the past few years — and that’s a high bar — has to go to “greedflation.” The White House tried to blame the greed of meat packers and gas companies for rising prices. I would have blamed the Fed for inflation, but I’m no political strategist. According to this theory, inflation rose in the first half of 2022 because, all of a sudden, people became greedy. I guess. They must have become less greedy when inflation fell in the second half of 2022. I don’t know how this theory is supposed to work. Someone write down a model!

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Spring is here, and hope springs eternal in the human breast that competition enforcers will focus on welfare-enhancing initiatives, rather than on welfare-reducing interventionism that fails the consumer welfare standard.

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In February’s FTC roundup, I noted an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which Commissioner Christine Wilson announced her intent to resign from the Federal Trade Commission. Her departure, and her stated reasons therefore, were not encouraging for those of us who would prefer to see the FTC function as a stable, economically grounded, and genuinely bipartisan independent agency. Since then, Wilson has specified her departure date: March 31, two weeks hence.

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Franchising plays a key role in promoting American job creation and economic growth. As explained in Forbes (hyperlinks omitted)…

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The U.S. Department of Justice and eight states recently sued Google, claiming it runs its digital ad business to unfairly advantage its own business, to the detriment of its customers and potential rivals. Some commentators have expressed concerns that the government would make its case using novel and untested legal models, but Salil Mehra writes that these concerns are misplaced and that the case will be primarily argued using traditional antitrust law.

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The 117^th Congress closed out without a floor vote on either of the major pieces of antitrust legislation introduced in both chambers: the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) and the Open Apps Market Act (OAMA). But it was evident at yesterday’s hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee that at least some advocates—both in academia and among the committee leadership—hope to raise those bills from the dead.

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There is a line of thinking according to which, without merger-control rules, antitrust law is “incomplete.” Without such a regime, the argument goes, whenever a group of companies faces with the risk of being penalized for cartelizing, they could instead merge and thus “raise prices without any legal consequences.”

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In a Feb. 14 column in the Wall Street Journal, Commissioner Christine Wilson announced her intent to resign her position on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). For those curious to know why, she beat you to the punch in the title and subtitle of her column: “Why I’m Resigning as an FTC Commissioner: Lina Khan’s disregard for the rule of law and due process make it impossible for me to continue serving.”

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