February 18, 2021

tl;dr - The Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act

Samuel Bowman & Geoffrey A. Manne & Dirk Auer

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has introduced the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act (CALERA), sweeping legislation that, if enacted, would change the antitrust rules not just for Big Tech, but for the whole economy.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

February 1, 2021

Comments to FTC: ANPR Concerning Future Amendments to the HSR Rules

Dirk Auer & Geoffrey A. Manne & Samuel Bowman

ICLE comments filed Feb. 1, 2021, to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in response to the FTC's Advance Notice of Public Rulemaking concerning future amendments to the premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

January 26, 2021

Ajit Pai Brought the FCC’s Media Ownership Rules into the Modern Age

Geoffrey A. Manne

Pai’s tenure at the FCC was marked by an abiding appreciation for the importance of competition, both as a guiding principle for new regulations and as a touchstone to determine when to challenge existing ones. Perhaps his greatest contribution to bringing competition to the forefront of the FCC’s mandate came in his work on media modernization.

Telecommunications

December 11, 2020

Facebook and the Pros and Cons of Ex Post Merger Reviews

Dirk Auer

The Federal Trade Commission and 46 state attorneys general (along with the District of Columbia and the Territory of Guam) filed their long-awaited complaints against Facebook Dec. 9. The crux of the arguments in…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

April 17, 2020

Correcting Common Misperceptions About the State of Antitrust Law and Enforcement

Geoffrey A. Manne

On Friday, April 17, 2020, ICLE President and Founder, Geoffrey A. Manne, submitted written testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law.

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 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

July 26, 2019

T-Mobile Sprints to the Finish Line: States Demand a Do-Over

Eric Fruits

T-Mobile/Sprint merger cleared with conditions, but some states keep pressing an unconvincing theory to block the merger. Why not view it as making a viable third national competitor which will benefit consumers across the country?

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

June 27, 2018

ICLE Letter to Senate Judiciary re T-Mobile-Sprint Merger

Geoffrey A. Manne & Richard Epstein & Gus Hurwitz & Thomas Lambert & Michael Sykuta & Peter Klein & Mark Jamison & Dan Lyons

We are a group of eight scholars of antitrust law and economics affiliated with the International Center for Law & Economics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research center based in Portland, OR. Without taking a position on the merits of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger, this letter provides a brief explication of our views on some of the important economic issues involved in the transaction’s antitrust review.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection