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FTC on the CFPA

TOTM Commissioners Rosch and Kovacic of the Federal Trade Commission come out against the proposed CFPA.  Both emphasize the risk of shifting consumer protection authority away . . .

Commissioners Rosch and Kovacic of the Federal Trade Commission come out against the proposed CFPA.  Both emphasize the risk of shifting consumer protection authority away from an agency with substantial expertise in the area (including the Bureau of Economics which has an excellent record of reports and publications in this area) to an unproven agency.  Commissioner Kovacic ends his statement noting the potential for conflict in interpreting and enforcing consumer protection law as well as questioning the whether the CFPA commitment to “plain vanilla” products will improve welfare…

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

EU Likely to Require A Browser Ballot Screen for Windows 7 in Europe

TOTM It looks like the old/new EU Microsoft browser tie-in case might be resolved through a requirement that Microsoft offers consumers a “ballot screen”  that would allow users to select and install competing browsers.

It looks like the old/new EU Microsoft browser tie-in case might be resolved through a requirement that Microsoft offers consumers a “ballot screen”  that would allow users to select and install competing browsers.  (HT: WSJ) That is, Microsoft will be offering up a menu of rival browsers to consumers.  Apparently, the EU is willing to allow Internet Explorer on the menu.  Word from the Commission on the proposal is favorable…

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Ovation Reconsidered: A Response to Commissioner Leary

TOTM I was very pleased to thumb through the newest version of Antitrust Magazine and see a TOTM post get some attention.  Its always nice to . . .

I was very pleased to thumb through the newest version of Antitrust Magazine and see a TOTM post get some attention.  Its always nice to be cited and have folks take the time to respond to your work — or in this case, blog post.  Its even more tickling when the person doing the responding is a prominent and well respected figure such as former Federal Trade Commissioner Leary.  Commissioner Leary revisits the FTC’s enforcement action in Ovation and takes on the criticism of that enforcement action in this post.  You can see Commissioner Leary’s article here (I believe ABA registration and password required).  I’m grateful for the response and am going to take the opportunity  to argue that, despite the Commissioner’s criticisms, the troublesome implications that I pointed out in the earlier post associated with the enforcement approach in Ovation remain (see also guest blogger Mary Coleman’s related concerns).

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Whitman on Libertarian Paternalism and the Public-Private Distinction

TOTM Here’s a great post from Glen Whitman on libertarian paternalism as applied to mortgages and the housing market.  Glen takes Richard Thaler to task for . . .

Here’s a great post from Glen Whitman on libertarian paternalism as applied to mortgages and the housing market.  Glen takes Richard Thaler to task for his NY Times piece discussing behavioral economics in the mortgage market and advocating defaults for “plain vanilla” mortgages. Glen’s primary beef is that Thaler ignores the distinction between private and public action…

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Too Big To Fail as an Antitrust Concept

TOTM There has been a lot of talk recently about the possibility that lax antitrust gave rise to the financial crisis or that antitrust could be . . .

There has been a lot of talk recently about the possibility that lax antitrust gave rise to the financial crisis or that antitrust could be used as a proactive weapon to prevent mergers and acquisitions that would create entities “too big to fail.” George Priest recently took AAG Varney to task for suggesting that there was a consensus amongst economists that lax antitrust contributed to the current financial situation.  Simon Johnson has been pushing the idea that antitrust is an appropriate tool for dealing with the type of financial risk imposed by businesses that become so large that their failure would cause substantial damage throughout the economy.  The idea might be catching on.  Frank Pasquale recently cited to Johnson’s work favorably.  The idea has also been favorably cited by Commissioner Rosch.

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Let’s Have New Section 2 Hearings!

TOTM Commissioner Rosch has offered a defense of the withdraw of the Section 2 Report.  This is an important step and the Commissioner, who readers know . . .

Commissioner Rosch has offered a defense of the withdraw of the Section 2 Report.  This is an important step and the Commissioner, who readers know I’ve criticized from time to time here, should be credited for laying out his specific objections to the Report.  The objections are, in short, that the Report…

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Antitrust Pricing War: Congress v. the Court

Popular Media In Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 2705 (2007) (“Leegin”), the Supreme Court completed the erosion of the per se rule against . . .

In Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 2705 (2007) (“Leegin”), the Supreme Court completed the erosion of the per se rule against resale price maintenance (“RPM”) that began nearly 100 years prior.  It took only three months, however, for Congress to take steps toward reversing course by introducing the Discount Pricing Consumer Protection Act (“DPCPA”) in October 2007, which sought to legislatively overturn Leegin and mandate a rule of per se illegality in RPM cases.

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Commissioner Rosch, Rhetoric, and the Relationship Between Economics and Antitrust

TOTM Economic theory is essential to antitrust law.  It is economic analysis that constrains antitrust law and harnesses it so that it is used to protect . . .

Economic theory is essential to antitrust law.  It is economic analysis that constrains antitrust law and harnesses it so that it is used to protect consumers rather than competitors.  And the relationship between economics and antitrust is responsible for the successful evolution of antitrust from its economically incoherent origins to its present state.  In my view, which I’ve expressed in greater detail elsewhere, the fundamental challenge for antitrust is one that is created by having “too many theories” without methodological commitments from regulators and courts on how to select between them.  The proliferation of economic models that came along with the rise of Post-Chicago economics and integration of game theory into industrial organization has led to a state of affairs where a regulator or court has a broad spectrum of models to choose from when analyzing an antitrust issue.

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Will Section 2 Thwart the DOJ’s New Antitrust Agenda?

TOTM George Priest has an excellent op-ed in the WSJ correctly calling out the Justice Department’s new Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney for attributing the financial . . .

George Priest has an excellent op-ed in the WSJ correctly calling out the Justice Department’s new Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney for attributing the financial crisis to a lack of antitrust enforcement…

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection