My paper on the future of progressive antitrust will be published in the Florida Law Review, with a hopeful eye toward the election. Where has Biden administration antitrust policy succeeded, and where could it be improved? Still time for comments. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Here KHarris can put some real distance between herself and the Biden administration. No one concerned about prices would write merger guidelines that cited Brown Shoe 15 times --a poster child for using merger law to condemn "lower prices or higher quality for the same price"

Carefirst, 2024 WL 3858259 (E.D.Va. Aug. 16 2024) held that if D obtained its patent fraudulently with the result that prices were too high, even indirect purchasers could sue for an injunction under federal antitrust law; state plaintiffs fared less well.

It's not entirely an antitrust problem, but antitrust is relevant in highly concentrated parts of the mkt. This is where KHarris can distinguish herself from Biden by having a more price-focused policy. Lay off of big tech a bit and focus on issues that people really care about.

One of the most biased push polls I've seen, but also factually wrong. Most "experts" do not think big tech acquisitions of small firms lead to price increases. Most are acquisitions of complements, which lead to better performance. Some exceptions, like Meta/Instagram.

Erik Hovenkamp has an excellent post in ProMarket this morning on the Google case, particularly on its use of behavioral economics and the difficult issue of remedies. promarket.org/2024/08/22/wha…

A DC court sustained a §2 claim against Amazon under district law "guided" by Sherman Act. It held there could be relevant markets for goods sold in ecommerce, notwithstanding reasonable interchangeability with the same goods sold in traditional stores. oag.dc.gov/sites/default/…

Robert Bork actually co-argued the case for the appellants, claiming that only a breakup would undermine the monopoly. A dramatic case of switching sides.

I like your chart, but musn't the assumption be that the market is relatively concentrated? E.g., you are right that antitrust has not been effective with tacit collusion, but gouging does not occur in highly competitive markets. Farmer Brown cannot gouge in potatoes, right?

Jorge Padilla argues in CPI that the EU is not immune from the reactionary diseases infecting some of U.S. antitrust. Economics is imperfect and experts disagree. That’s an argument for improvement, not for jettisoning it in favor of something far worse. pymnts.com/wp-content/upl….

A quick thread about Yelp's new antitrust case against Google, and why the surrounding hype is so misleading and unwarranted. Yelp is not "fighting the good fight" here. It's a weak and self-interested case trying to ride the wave of the DOJ's recent win over Google. 1/

Yelp's case is all about "self-preferencing" on Google's search page. Like Yelp, Google aggregates reviews for businesses, professionals, attractions, etc. Google integrated its review system into its search page so that reviews sometimes show up automatically. 3/

Yelp's complaint reminds me of a now-infamous string of cases against IBM in the 60s-70s. IBM was dominant in computers. At the time, things like disk drives were sold as "peripherals" -- separate equipment that had to be plugged into the computer. ... 7/

That piece does not even cite the 2 SCT decisions that are right on point to the efficiencies defense: Brunswick, 429us477 (no liability for merger that caused product improvements); Cargill, 479us104 (no liability for a merger that led to efficiencies and lower prices).

The annual symposium issue of the Journal of Law and Innovation is out, which a strong list of authors writing about digital platforms. This journal, now only in its seventh year, has gotten off to a very promising start. scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jli/

Finally read district's Amazon case, which seems to be an unsalvageable mess. A relevant market of U.S. retail ecommerce is like "all the stuff sold at Walmart." MktPwr refers to products, not firms, and for many Az faces robust offline competition. jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-…

The Notre Dame L.Rev. is publishing my piece on the Structure of Merger Law, querying why courts and writers so often understate the frequency and size of merger efficiencies, and why merger law's "single market" rule abets that. Comments still welcome. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Spotlight in October: Intellectual Property, Innovation, & the future of #competitionpolicy Join us in Florence for: 2️⃣ dynamic days of discussion 🎙️ An inspiring speech by Prof Herbert Hovenkamp 📚 Presentations of 32 academic papers More info ℹ️ digitalsociety.eui.eu/events/?id=565…