Abstract

The use of antitrust in the context of food is problematic because it so clearly violates the Consumer Welfare Standard as prescribed by the courts. Ultimately, antitrust rhetoric promoting ad nauseam enforcement will not improve consumer welfare. Advancing consumer welfare in the food industry must mean prioritizing lower food prices over some arbitrary threshold of market competition or protecting small farms. Courts can and should begin distinguishing these goals immediately.

Read at SSRN.

The U.S. Justice Department’s (DOJ) recent complaint charging Apple with monopolizing smartphone markets is, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, intended as a contribution to the agency’s “enduring legacy of taking on the biggest and toughest monopolies in history.”

Unfortunately, the case has fundamental weaknesses in its assessment of both Apple’s alleged monopoly power and the “exclusionary” nature of its business strategies. These infirmities have been discussed at-length by, among others, Alden Abbott, Herbert Hovenkamp, and Randall Picker.

What appears to have flown under the radar, however, is the DOJ’s flawed understanding of the goals and scope of what it calls “our system of antitrust laws.”

Read the full piece here.

It’s easy for politicians to make unrealistic promises. Indeed, without a healthy skepticism on the part of the public, they can grow like weeds. In the world of digital policy, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has proven fertile ground for just such promises. We’ve been told that large digital platforms are the source of many economic and social ills, and that handing more discretionary power to the government can solve these problems with no apparent side effects or costs.

Read the full piece here.

Through laudable competition on the merits, Google achieved a usage share of nearly 90% in “general search services.” About a decade later, the government alleged that Google had maintained its dominant share through exclusionary practices violating Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The case was tried in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. last fall, and the parties made post-trial filings this year.

Read the full piece here.

ICLE Senior Scholar Lazar Radic joined Associazione Copernicani and moderator Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffè for a discussion (in Italian) of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act and the European Commission’s noncompliance investigations of Alphabet, Apple, and Meta. Video of the full discussion is embedded below.

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent complaint challenging the proposed merger of the supermarkets Kroger Co. and Albertsons Companies Inc. has important implications for antitrust enforcement in labor markets. Central to the FTC’s case is how it chooses to define the relevant markets, and particularly the commission’s focus on unionized grocery workers. The complaint alleges that the combined firm would dominate these markets, substantially lessening competition for unionized labor.

Read the full piece here.

Ayear after it was created by the Government of India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs to examine the need for a separate law on competition in digital markets, India’s Committee on Digital Competition Law (CDCL) in February both published its report recommending adoption of such rules and submitted the draft Digital Competition Act (DCA), which is virtually identical to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Read the full piece here.

ICLE Chief Economist Brian Albrecht delivered remarks to Hillsdale College’s Hillsdale Praxis program on the topic “Market Power: How Competition Generates Prosperity.” Video of the full event is embedded below.