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

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

July 15, 2019

The Third Circuit’s Oberdorf v. Amazon Opinion Offers a Good Approach to Reining in the Worst Abuses of Section 230

Gus Hurwitz

In a remarkable ruling issued earlier this month, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held in Oberdorf v. Amazon that, under Pennsylvania products liability law, Amazon could be found liable for a third party vendor’s sale of a defective product via Amazon Marketplace.

Data Security & Privacy

July 11, 2019

Section 230 Principles for Lawmakers and a Note of Caution as Trump Convenes his “Social Media Summit”

Geoffrey A. Manne

This morning a diverse group of more than 75 academics, scholars, and civil society organizations — including ICLE and several of its academic affiliates — published a set of seven “Principles for Lawmakers” on liability for user-generated content online, aimed at guiding discussions around potential amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

Data Security & Privacy

May 1, 2018

Amazon and the Unwisdom of the Populist Crowd

Kristian Stout

There are some who view a host of claimed negative social ills allegedly related to the large size of firms like Amazon as an occasion to call for the company’s break…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

December 1, 2017

FAKE NEWS’S NOT-SO-REAL ANTITRUST PROBLEM: CONTENT REMAINS KING

Gus Hurwitz

Concern about both fake news and the size of Internet mega-platforms like Facebook is popular these days. In each case the concern is intuitively obvious yet the pathway by which it manifests into tangible harm ambiguous.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

August 29, 2017

ABA Teleconference: Teleconference on Newspaper Antitrust Immunity

Geoffrey A. Manne

Summary David Chavern (News Media Alliance, whose members include NYT, WSJ, Tronc (Chicago Tribune, LA Times)), in a July 9, 2017 Wall Street Journal op-ed and subsequent press release, called…

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

September 27, 2016

Capitol Forum & George Washington University Institute of Public Policy, Conference on Dominant Platforms Under the Microscope, Panel discussion: “Is Antitrust the Proper Remedy for Search Bias?”

Geoffrey A. Manne

WATCH: Video

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

May 10, 2016

Pushing Ad Networks Out of Business: Yershov v. Gannett and the War Against Online Platforms

Kristian Stout

The lifecycle of a law is a curious one; born to fanfare, a great solution to a great problem, but ultimately doomed to age badly as lawyers seek to shoehorn…

Innovation & The New Economy