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ICLE President Geoffrey A. Manne and Senior Scholar Lazar Radic took part in the European Law Students Association’s European Union Law Conference at IE University Law School. This year’s theme was “A Conversation About the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act and Their Consequences.” Lazar moderated the conference’s second panel, on “Economic Aspects of Digital Platforms and Whether the Digital Regulations Address Them Correctly.” Geoff was a featured speaker on the conference’s final panel, on “Challenges Facing Companies in Implementing the Digital Regulations.”

ICLE Director of Law & Economics Programs Gus Hurwitz was cited by the Huffington Post in a story about President Joe Biden signing legislation that seeks to force the divestment of TikTok. You can read the full piece here.

ICLE Senior Scholar Eric Fruits was quoted by Law360 in a story about the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to reimpose Title II regulation on broadband internet-access service providers. You can read the full piece here.

“I’m skeptical that Congress would actually act to do any sort of CRA reversal,” said Eric Fruits, a senior scholar at the International Center for Law and Economics, and a critic of the order. “And so that means you’re going to have the lawsuits. And the other big story of the year would be if no one filed a lawsuit. I bet you there’s someone, somewhere, who already has a lawsuit written.”

ICLE Chief Economist Brian Albrecht was cited by The Dispatch in a story on the Federal Trade Commission’s vote to ban nearly all noncompete agreements in employment contracts. You can read the full piece here.

But these are just projections, and some economists argue more research needs to be done on the economic effects of restricting the use of non-competes before a nationwide ban is instituted. “While there’s increasing evidence that banning non-competes—at least the way that it’s been done—increases wages, it’s not conclusive,” Brian Albrecht—the chief economist at the International Center on Law and Economics—told TMD. “There are not that many papers on this. We do not have that many clear examples.” He cited Oregon’s statewide ban on non-competes for hourly workers as a clear example of wages rising after a ban went into effect, but argued that there’s comparatively little research on the effects of a ban applying to every level of income.

PORTLAND, Ore. (April 23, 2024) – The International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) offers the following statement on today’s vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FTC) to adopt a rule classifying internet service providers (ISPs) under Title II of the Communications Act.

The following quote can be attributed to ICLE Senior Scholar Eric Fruits:

Title II is much more than net neutrality. It is the same type of expansive and heavy-handed regulation that governs public utilities. The FCC’s rule is a sharp reversal from decades of light-touch regulation that has fostered America’s leadership in broadband innovation and investment. The industry would face the yoke of onerous federal regulation and meddling that would stifle and slow future investment and experimentation.

For more on the topic, see ICLE’s issue spotlight laying out the history of Title II and net neutrality, as well as our comments to the FCC on their notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). To schedule an interview with Eric about the topic, contact ICLE Media and Communications Manager Elizabeth Lincicome at (919) 744-8087 or [email protected].

ICLE Director of Law & Economics Programs Gus Hurwitz was quoted by the Associated Press in a story about President Joe Biden’s signing of a bill requiring Chinese firm ByteDance to sell its TikTok subsidiary. You can read the full piece here.

The battle could also string along for some time, with the potential for appeals that could go all the way to the Supreme Court, which would likely uphold the law due to its current composition, said Gus Hurwitz, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School.

…“One of the unfortunate and really frustrating things about national-security legislation (is that) it tends to be a trump card,” Hurwitz said. “Once national-security issues come up, they’re going to carry the day either successfully or not.”

Hurwitz added that he thinks there are legitimate national-security arguments that could be brought up here. National security can be argued because it’s a federal measure, he added. That sets this scenario apart from previously unsuccessful state-level legislation seeking to ban TikTok, such as in Montana.

The Issue

Net neutrality is the idea that internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data transmitted over the internet the same, and should not discriminate among consumers, entities that provide content, or applications that use the internet. Whether net neutrality should be mandated by rules and regulations—such as the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) latest net-neutrality regulations—has been a highly controversial topic since the early 2000s. In the years since 2010, the FCC has imposed net-neutrality rules (1,2), only to see them struck down by courts or repealed, as the commission’s partisan makeup changed.

ICLE Academic Affiliates Jonathan M. Barnett and Luke Froeb were quoted by Variety in a story about antitrust concerns that could be raised by growing sentiment in Hollywood that studios need to merge. You can read the full piece here.

“There are certain portions of the antitrust community who are of the view that certain elements of antitrust law over almost half a century have gone in the wrong direction,” says Jonathan Barnett, a professor at USC Gould School of Law. “The focus has been in particular on the rise of digital platforms and the accompanying level of concentration that you now observe in those markets.”

…Luke Froeb, Vanderbilt University professor and former chief economist for the Justice Department’s antitrust division, is critical of the Biden-era approach.

“They’ve stepped away from 50 years of case law that made things reasonably clear [for companies],” Froeb says. “They’re saying, ‘Hey, we’re going back to the ’60s, when we thought ‘Big is bad.’”

…“Deal risk is now elevated,” USC’s Barnett says. “The agencies are challenging deals that we wouldn’t have expected to be challenged under conventional antitrust doctrines. The agencies are demanding more information and more evidence of efficiencies in merger reviews. That all adds more costs and more risk of rejection.”

ICLE Senior Scholar Miko?aj Barczentewicz was a guest on the Mobile Dev Memo podcast to discuss the European Data Protection Board’s recent ruling on the so-called “pay or okay” business model, and whether it complies with the requirements of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Audio of the full interview is embedded below.