June 14, 2018

For LabMD, the Devil is in the Not-So-Well Specified Details

Geoffrey A. Manne & Gus Hurwitz & Kristian Stout
The Eleventh Circuit’s LabMD opinion came out last week and has been something of a rorschach test for those of us who study consumer protection law. Neil Chilson found the result to be a disturbing sign of slippage in Congress’s command that the FTC refrain from basing enforcement on “public policy.” Berin Szóka, on the other hand, saw the ruling as a long-awaited rebuke against the FTC’s expansive notion of its “unfairness” authority.
Antitrust & Consumer Protection
June 12, 2018

AT&T-Time Warner merger approved

Eric Fruits
AT&T’s merger with Time Warner has lead to one of the most important, but least interesting, antitrust trials in recent history. It’s about a close to a “pure” vertical merger as we can get in today’s world and would not lead to a measurable increase in prices paid by consumers.
Antitrust & Consumer Protection
June 11, 2018

Canadian Site Blocking Proposal Is a Good Experiment in Controlling Piracy

Kristian Stout
In an ideal world, it would not be necessary to block websites in order to combat piracy. But we do not live in an ideal world. We live in a world in which enormous amounts of content—from books and software to movies and music—is being distributed illegally. As a result, content creators and owners are being deprived of their rights and of the revenue that would flow from legitimate consumption of that content.
Intellectual Property
June 11, 2018

More on a possible Comcast/Fox deal

Geoffrey A. Manne
In brief, Delrahim spent virtually the entirety of his short remarks making and remaking the fundamental point at the center of my own assessment of the antitrust risk of a possible Comcast/Fox deal: The DOJ’s challenge of the AT&T/Time Warner merger tells you nothing about the likelihood that the agency would challenge a Comcast/Fox merger.
Antitrust & Consumer Protection