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Is Amazon Guilty of Predatory Pricing?

TOTM Predatory pricing is a rather rare anticompetitive practice because the “predator” runs the risk of bankrupting itself in the process of trying to drive rivals out of business with below-cost pricing.

In 2014, Benedict Evans, a venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz, wrote “Why Amazon Has No Profits (And Why It Works),” a blog post in which he tried to explain Amazon’s business model. He began with a chart of Amazon’s revenue and net income that has now become (in)famous…

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

The ICANN Board’s Important Test of Independence: .Amazon

TOTM One of the main concerns I had during the IANA transition was the extent to which the newly independent organization would be able to behave impartially, implementing . . .

One of the main concerns I had during the IANA transition was the extent to which the newly independent organization would be able to behave impartially, implementing its own policies and bylaws in an objective and non-discriminatory manner, and not be unduly influenced by specific  “stakeholders”. Chief among my concerns at the time was the extent to which an independent ICANN would be able to resist the influence of governments: when a powerful government leaned on ICANN’s board, would it be able to adhere to its own policies and follow the process the larger multistakeholder community put in place?

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Amazon is not essential

TOTM The following is adapted from a recent ICLE Issue Brief on the flawed essential facilities arguments undergirding the EU competition investigations into Amazon’s marketplace that Kristian Stout wrote with Geoffrey Manne.

Amazon has largely avoided the crosshairs of antitrust enforcers to date. The reasons seem obvious: in the US it handles a mere 5% of all retail sales (with lower shares worldwide), and it consistently provides access to a wide array of affordable goods. Yet, even with Amazon’s obvious lack of dominance in the general retail market, the EU and some of its member states are opening investigations.

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

This Too Shall Pass: Unassailable Monopolies That Were, in Hindsight, Eminently Assailable

TOTM Elizabeth Warren wants to break up the tech giants — Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple — claiming they have too much power and represent a danger to our democracy. As part of our response to her proposal, we shared a couple of headlines from 2007 claiming that MySpace had an unassailable monopoly in the social media market.

Elizabeth Warren wants to break up the tech giants — Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple — claiming they have too much power and represent a danger to our democracy. As part of our response to her proposal, we shared a couple of headlines from 2007 claiming that MySpace had an unassailable monopoly in the social media market.

Read the full piece here.

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Elizabeth Warren wants to turn the internet into a literal sewer (service)

TOTM Near the end of her new proposal to break up Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple, Senator Warren asks, “So what would the Internet look like after all these reforms?” To Warren, our most dynamic and innovative companies constitute a problem that needs solving.

Near the end of her new proposal to break up Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple, Senator Warren asks, “So what would the Internet look like after all these reforms?”

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

The Mozilla oral arguments and the ongoing hell of the “net neutrality” debate

TOTM In the opening seconds of what was surely one of the worst oral arguments in a high-profile case that I have ever heard, Pantelis Michalopoulos, . . .

In the opening seconds of what was surely one of the worst oral arguments in a high-profile case that I have ever heard, Pantelis Michalopoulos, arguing for petitioners against the FCC’s 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIFO) expertly captured both why the side he was representing should lose and the overall absurdity of the entire net neutrality debate: “This order is a stab in the heart of the Communications Act. It would literally write ‘telecommunications’ out of the law. It would end the communications agency’s oversight over the main communications service of our time.”

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Telecommunications & Regulated Utilities

The Amazon investigation and Europe’s “Big Tech” Crusade

TOTM The dust has barely settled on the European Commission’s record-breaking €4.3 Billion Google Android fine, but already the European Commission is gearing up for its next high-profile case.

The dust has barely settled on the European Commission’s record-breaking €4.3 Billion Google Android fine, but already the European Commission is gearing up for its next high-profile case. Last month, Margrethe Vestager dropped a competition bombshell: the European watchdog is looking into the behavior of Amazon. Should the Commission decide to move further with the investigation, Amazon will likely join other US tech firms such as Microsoft, Intel, Qualcomm and, of course, Google, who have all been on the receiving end of European competition enforcement.

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Amazon-Whole Foods symposium wrap-up

TOTM On Tuesday, August 28, 2018, Truth on the Market and the International Center for Law and Economics presented a blog symposium — Is Amazon’s Appetite Bottomless? The Whole Foods Merger After One Year — that looked at the concerns surrounding the closing of the Amazon-Whole Foods merger, and how those concerns had played out over the last year.

On Tuesday, August 28, 2018, Truth on the Market and the International Center for Law and Economics presented a blog symposium — Is Amazon’s Appetite Bottomless? The Whole Foods Merger After One Year — that looked at the concerns surrounding the closing of the Amazon-Whole Foods merger, and how those concerns had played out over the last year.

Read the full piece here.

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection

The Amazon-Whole Foods merger: Natural and organic competition in the evolving grocery industry [Amazon-Whole Foods Symposium]

TOTM Geoffrey A. Manne is the President & Founder at the International Center for Law & Economics. Kristian Stout is the Associate Director of Innovation Policy at the International Center for Law & Economics.

The submissions in this symposium thus far highlight, in different ways, what must be considered the key lesson of the Amazon/Whole Foods merger: It has brought about immense and largely unforeseen (in its particulars, at least) competition — and that competition has been remarkably successful in driving innovations that will likely bring immense benefits to consumers and the economy as a whole.

Read the full piece here.

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Antitrust & Consumer Protection