December Threads 2024
Threads from ICLE scholars on trending issues for the month of January 2025.
1/ This paper w @CompetitionProf explores a provocative idea: the rise of the consumer welfare standard wasn’t a top-down neoliberal coup, but a pragmatic response to the need for legal certainty, administrability, and evidence in judicialized systems. ? https://t.co/LsRatCElXR pic.twitter.com/EclruF2yPu
— Lazar Radic (@laz_radic) December 24, 2024
1/ This paper w @CompetitionProf explores a provocative idea: the rise of the consumer welfare standard wasn’t a top-down neoliberal coup, but a pragmatic response to the need for legal certainty, administrability, and evidence in judicialized systems. ? https://t.co/LsRatCElXR pic.twitter.com/EclruF2yPu
— Lazar Radic (@laz_radic) December 24, 2024
Some remarkable, last-minute, under-the-radar memory holing by the outgoing Biden DOJ Antitrust Division @JusticeATR. Somehow I didn't see this mentioned in Kanter's self-congratulatory exit monologue. ?
— Geoffrey Manne (@geoffmanne) December 19, 2024
The hot new thing in antitrust is labor market power. How big of a deal is it really?
Eric Posner criticizes @MHolyoakFTC for being skeptical of aggressive labor antitrust and using HSR filing to enforce it.
But the evidence isn't what he claims. https://t.co/MJBirhkHFd
— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) December 19, 2024
Why can't Europeans have nice things?@EU_Competition is trying to break open the iOS ecosystem. It believes interoperability will help third party devices compete.
But these efforts will merely compromise user security and delay product improvements for Europeans.
— Dirk Auer (@AuerDirk) December 19, 2024
The push for aggressive labor antitrust enforcement is growing, but is it backed by solid evidence? At Truth on the Market, @BrianCAlbrecht and I argue that the case for expanded labor antitrust is (at least so far) weaker than proponents claim. ? pic.twitter.com/ddGo8RGgue
— Geoffrey Manne (@geoffmanne) December 18, 2024
1/In a year in which South Korea ?? has proposed more than a dozen other legislative proposals for platform regulation, what should be on policymakers' minds after todays hearing on digital platform regulation? A ? https://t.co/zxTYaPa4CK pic.twitter.com/NtefuGNoDP
— Lazar Radic (@laz_radic) December 18, 2024
1/ Australia has reformed its merger control regime. Biggest changes include a mandatory notification regime, an expansion of the "substantial lessening of competition test" & focus on serial acquisitions. Light Monday morning ? https://t.co/Viqjqe9IZF pic.twitter.com/Vzqn4tsigP
— Lazar Radic (@laz_radic) December 16, 2024
Quick thread if you ever hear "there's no evidence the RPA raises prices and harms consumers" or "RPA helps small businesses":
It's thin, but it's not nothing ?
— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) December 12, 2024
The FTC just filed its first Robinson-Patman case in ~25 years.
And while price discrimination can be concerning, I have some questions about this one… Who exactly is it going to help? Consumers? pic.twitter.com/EsQMOFaNws
— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) December 12, 2024
#Antitrust #DigitalMarkets #Apple #Brazil
??A week ago, @CadeGovBr issued a preventive injunction ordering @Apple to allow users to download 3rd-party apps and make purchases on its devices, from outside its App Store. Now a federal judge has overturned that injunction. ?(1/x) pic.twitter.com/gpuBwfjGYT
— Mario Zúñiga (@MZunigaP) December 11, 2024
1/ Japan’s announcement that it would designate companies subject to its new, stricter competition framework on 20 January, the same day as Trump’s inauguration, got me thinking about the implications of ex-ante rules targeting US firms under Trump’s “America First” doctrine. ?… pic.twitter.com/OAY3Riqr6z
— Lazar Radic (@laz_radic) December 11, 2024
? FTC wins its preliminary injunction to block the Kroger/Albertsons merger ?
Not surprising but debatable.
But let's see the reasoning pic.twitter.com/5xhlhhEaU6
— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) December 10, 2024
MAI Systems, a 1990s 9th Circuit Decision, Set to Play a Starring Role in Copyright Fights Between Media Companies and AI Firms $BABA $BIDU $MSFT https://t.co/7DSYXnb6t6
h/t @SaraMorrison
— The Capitol Forum (@Capitol_Forum) November 27, 2024
Reading through the DC Circuit panel's decision upholding the TikTok ban and this is very interesting in light of our own government's alleged coercion of social media companies in Murthy
(a short ?) pic.twitter.com/M554Z7w1yr— Ben Sperry (@RBenSperry) December 6, 2024
New @LawEconCenter wp just released on “The politicization of IP protection: the case of standard essential patents.” The paper is forthcoming in European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR) https://t.co/sWO5ahc8yi.
— Giuseppe Colangelo (@GiuColangelo) December 6, 2024
1/8: Recent headlines about the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google echo a flawed playbook from the 1990s: forcing companies to share their tech undercuts innovation. We’ve seen this before with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. ? pic.twitter.com/eddAkBOi9u
— Eric Fruits, Ph.D. (@ericfruits) December 5, 2024
(1) The International Center for Law & Economics and 17 scholars of law and economics have filed an amicus brief (the brief of amici curiae, below) in the 9th Circuit, in support of the appellants (Google).
— Daniel J Gilman (@DanielJGilman1) December 5, 2024
I just gave this talk. It's silly to think we need to "Make America Competitive Again."
We're crazy competitive! A few graphs to keep in mind https://t.co/GxqmewU9Qy pic.twitter.com/nCSfKl96Yi
— Brian Albrecht (@BrianCAlbrecht) December 4, 2024
1/11 A country Y seeking to copy a regulatory remedy from country X should first seek to understand two things: (i) is the problem addressed present in Country Y and (ii) is what country X considers a problem also a problem from the perspective of Country Y. ?
— Lazar Radic (@laz_radic) December 3, 2024
1/12 Recently, the Australian Government unveiled its proposal for a new ex-ante regulation of digital platforms. In a speech last night, Hon Stephen Jones defended the proposal. Here's my take. ? https://t.co/YfiZuFWtbs
— Lazar Radic (@laz_radic) December 3, 2024
? New blog post ?@EU_Competition recently fined Meta almost €800 million for tying its secondhand marketplace to the Facebook social network.
The decision is part of a broader push that is degrading internet services and diminishing tech investments in the EU.
— Dirk Auer (@AuerDirk) December 2, 2024