Geoff Manne and Keith Hylton on the Amazon Case

Bloomberg Law – ICLE President Geoffrey Manne and Academic Affiliate Keith Hylton were both quoted by Bloomberg Law in a story about the FTC’s antitrust case against Amazon. You can read full piece here.

Although the complaint doesn’t characterize them as two sides of the same market, they appear to function as one, said Keith Hylton, a professor at Boston University School of Law. But the link between them may not be as strong as in American Express, he cautioned.

…Amazon’s offerings to sellers go beyond American Express’ interactions with merchants. So it isn’t just facilitating the transaction like American Express is, making that case likely irrelevant, said Geoffrey Manne, president of the International Center for Law and Economics..

By choosing to define two connected markets rather than a single, two-sided one, the FTC may be trying to dodge the Supreme Court’s test, Manne said.