October 16, 2019

Does Apple’s “Discrimination” Against Rival Apps in the App Store harm Consumers?

Ben Sperry

For most people, the word discrimination has a pejorative connotation of animus based upon prejudice ... but another definition is a lot less charged: the act of making or perceiving a difference.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

October 1, 2019

Any Way You Measure It, Warren Is Wrong to Claim “Facebook and Google Account for 70% of All Internet Traffic”

Alec Stapp

Seeing internet traffic is not the same thing as “account[ing] for” — or controlling or even directly influencing — internet traffic.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

October 1, 2019

Comments of ICLE, re: Tunney Act Review of the Sprint-T-Mobile Merger

Eric Fruits & Gus Hurwitz & Geoffrey A. Manne & Julian Morris & Alec Stapp

ICLE filed a letter summarizing its analysis of the relevant empirical literature on mobile carrier mergers as part of the Tunney Act review process.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

September 27, 2019

Debunking Elizabeth Warren’s Claim That “More Than 70% of All Internet Traffic Goes through Google or Facebook”

Alec Stapp

Less than 20 percent of all Internet traffic goes through sites owned or operated by Google or Facebook. While this statistic may be less eye-popping than the one trumpeted by Warren and other antitrust activists, it does have the virtue of being true.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

September 17, 2019

Vertical Mergers: Fast Food, Folklore, and Fake News

Eric Fruits

While the folklore of locking up distribution channels to eliminate double marginalization fits nicely with theory, the facts suggest a more mundane model of a firm scrambling to deliver shareholder wealth through diversification in the face of changing competition.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

September 17, 2019

A Review of the Empirical Evidence on the Effects of Market Concentration and Mergers in the Wireless Telecommunications Industry

Eric Fruits & Gus Hurwitz & Geoffrey A. Manne & Julian Morris & Alec Stapp

The merger between T-Mobile and Sprint has been characterized as a “4-to-3 merger” because after the merger there will be 3 national mobile network operators. Concerns have been raised regarding…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

September 13, 2019

The Real Story about Amazon, Counterfeit Listings, and Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policies

Geoffrey A. Manne & Kristian Stout & Alec Stapp

Amazon is again accused of being a predatory pricer, once again the evidence and theory to support this is nonexistent. Shaoul Sussman's complicated argument that the use of grey market sellers to force higher prices throughout the economy, doesn't add up.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

September 12, 2019

Submission on the final report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platforms Inquiry

Dirk Auer & Chris Berg & Gus Hurwitz & Geoffrey A. Manne & Julian Morris

In a submission to the Australian Treasury on 12 September 2019, a group of esteemed international scholars critiqued the recently published Final Report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Digital Platforms Inquiry.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

September 10, 2019

The Digital Policy of the Next EU Commission: All roads Lead to Margrethe Vestager

Dirk Auer

If the EU wants to turn itself into a digital economy powerhouse, it will have to switch towards light-touch regulation that allows firms to experiment with disruptive services, flexible employment options, and novel monetization strategies.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection