July 18, 2018

THE EU’S GOOGLE ANDROID ANTITRUST DECISION FALLS PREY TO THE NIRVANA FALLACY

Geoffrey A. Manne

It is sometimes said that the most important question in all of economics is “compared to what?” UCLA economist Harold Demsetz — one of the most important regulatory economists of the past century — coined the term “nirvana fallacy” to critique would-be regulators’ tendency to compare messy, real-world economic circumstances to idealized alternatives, and to justify policies on the basis of the discrepancy between them. Wishful thinking, in other words.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 18, 2018

Schrepel - The European Commission Is Undermining Innovation

Thibault Schrepel

This article introduces an empirical study conducted over the period 2004 to 2018 (Android included) on all the fines imposed by the European Commission on the basis of Article 102 TFEU. We show that the European Commission’s decisions may have the effect of slowing down R&D for numerous sanctioned companies.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 15, 2018

Appropriability and the European Commission’s Android Investigation

Dirk Auer

This paper seeks to ascertain whether Google’s Android licensing terms, which are currently under scrutiny from the European Commission, could be excused under an innovation defense framework. The paper starts by analyzing Google’s business model with regard to its Android OS.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 15, 2018

Predatory Innovation: The Definite Need for Legal Recognition

Thibault Schrepel

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in high-tech markets. The existing body of research on the topic suggests that such markets lead to reinterpret antitrust law key concepts – which should be done.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 15, 2018

THE THEORY OF ABUSE IN GOOGLE SEARCH

Pinar Akman

In its investigation into Google’s search practices, Google Search, the Commission alleges that Google abuses its dominant position on the web search market by giving systematic favourable treatment to its “comparison shopping product” (namely, “Google Shopping”) in its general search results pages.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 15, 2018

Fine is Only One Click Away

Aurelien Portuese

In a US Senate Hearing in 2011, Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, stated that ‘competition is only one click away’. On 27 June 2017, the European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for allegedly ‘abusing dominance as search engine by giving illegal advantage to own comparison shopping service’. Ruthlessly, a fine is only one click away too.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 11, 2018

Have We Exceeded the Limits of Antitrust?

icle

This annual international competition law conference is co-hosted by ICLE and the Centre for Business Law and Practice at the University of Leeds, UK. The purpose of the event is to provide a platform for scholars, regulators, and practitioners from both sides of the Atlantic to exchange views and develop their thinking on important aspects of competition law.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 9, 2018

Correcting the Federalist Society Review’s Mischaracterization of How to Regulate

Thomas Lambert

Ours is not an age of nuance.  It’s an age of tribalism, of teams—“Yer either fer us or agin’ us!”  Perhaps I should have been less surprised, then, when I read the unfavorable review of my book How to Regulate in, of all places, the Federalist Society Review.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 2, 2018

Big Tech’s Big-Time, Big-Scale Problem

Geoffrey A. Manne & Gus Hurwitz

High-tech and network industries have a long history of evoking populist scrutiny. New technologies frequently disrupt incumbent, often less centralized, business models and interfere with existing relationships between sellers and consumers.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection