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FTC's Three-Pronged Zillow/Redfin Complaint Contends Semantics Don't Erase Collusion - Truth on the Market
The details laid out in a recent complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against internet listing services (ILS) Zillow and Redfin may conjure a sense of déjà vu for antitrust watchers: a nine-figure payment, a rival’s quiet retreat, and a contract that calls itself a “partnership” while disclaiming the name. Strip away the ... FTC’s Three-Pronged Zillow/Redfin Complaint Contends Semantics Don’t Erase Collusion
‘Limits of Antitrust’ by Frank Easterbrook - Truth on the Market
The Core Argument: Markets Beat Courts at Correcting Monopoly Frank H. Easterbrook’s 1984 Texas Law Review article “Limits of Antitrust” advances a deceptively simple thesis that fundamentally reoriented competition policy: antitrust law should recognize its own institutional limitations and design rules accordingly. The article contains two central insights. The first is that, because “antitrust is ... ‘Limits of Antitrust’ by Frank Easterbrook
Excessive Antitrust Threatens American AI Leadership - Truth on the Market
A spate of major investments by large tech firms in U.S. artificial-intelligence (AI) companies should be viewed as a sign of vibrant competition that drives innovation. Antitrust intervention to limit such investments would be inappropriate. A cautious approach to antitrust, combined with deregulation, could be the ticket to ensuring continued American leadership in AI. AI ... Excessive Antitrust Threatens American AI Leadership
No, You Can’t Just Compare Tariff Rates and Income-Tax Rates - Truth on the Market
A little while back, John Lott had a very confused piece in the New York Post. In it, he made the following claim: Distortions increase as tax rates do. Before Trump’s policies, the average US tariff rate stood at just 2.5% — tiny compared to the 43.4% average top personal income tax rate (including federal and state ... No, You Can’t Just Compare Tariff Rates and Income-Tax Rates
A Clean Slate Approach to Broadcast Regulation - Truth on the Market
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recently issued notice calling for a review of the agency’s broadcast-ownership rules raises a foundational question: what purpose do these rules serve in a world of digital abundance? Indeed, FCC Chair Brendan Carr has observed the fundamental changes in how broadcasters compete in a marketplace of “numerous online audio and ... A Clean Slate Approach to Broadcast Regulation
Killer Acquisitions: A Killer Story, But Still Not Much Evidence - Truth on the Market
Merger-control regimes around the world have for some time now engaged with the theory of harm known as “killer acquisitions.” The idea is simple: an incumbent buys a rival in order to shut down its operations and preempt future competition. Indeed, the original paper that laid out the theory found that 5-7% of mergers may ... Killer Acquisitions: A Killer Story, But Still Not Much Evidence
'Optimal Departures from Marginal Cost Pricing' by William J. Baumol & David F. Bradford - Truth on the Market
William Baumol and David Bradford’s 1970 article “Optimal Departures from Marginal Cost Pricing” is a cornerstone in the economics of public utility regulation. While it appeared in the American Economic Review as a work of formal economic theory—complete with equations and proofs—it also has clear significance for law & economics. Baumol and Bradford demonstrate how ... ‘Optimal Departures from Marginal Cost Pricing’ by William J. Baumol & David F. Bradford
The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Amazon - Truth on the Market
A Sept. 25 press release from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) declares a sort of victory: “FTC Secures Historic $2.5 Billion Settlement Against Amazon.” The settlement comes in the infamous “dark patterns” case, where—as the press release reminds us—the agency “alleged that Amazon used deceptive methods to sign up consumers for Prime subscriptions and made ... The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Amazon
The FCC's Broadcast-Ownership Review: Will the Agency Open the Door for Comprehensive Reform? - Truth on the Market
On the docket for this week’s meeting of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on broadcast-ownership rules, which just so happens to arrive amid a profound shift in the industry’s content-distribution model from broadcast to streaming. Streaming services now command nearly half of all U.S. television viewing, while local ... The FCC’s Broadcast-Ownership Review: Will the Agency Open the Door for Comprehensive Reform?
Antitrust at the Agencies: Happy New Year 5786 Edition - Truth on the Market
It’s the beginning of a new year for some of us, so let me wish all of you a good year, and a sweet year, even if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Private Anticompetitive Censorship Continued? Turning back to the agency beat: in a Sept. 7 guest essay in The New York Times, ... Antitrust at the Agencies: Happy New Year 5786 Edition
Intel and US Government Investments in American Companies - Truth on the Market
Last month’s announcement that the U.S. government had obtained a 10% equity stake in U.S. semiconductor giant Intel raises big questions about the government’s role in the market economy. The government historically has invested in (and sometimes briefly taken over) firms in key sectors in response to national crises—most recently, the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Such investments ... Intel and US Government Investments in American Companies
Your Local News Anchors Might Welcome Their New Corporate Overlords - Truth on the Market
When late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! came back from its temporary “break,” viewers in many markets discovered something odd: Kimmel wasn’t back on their local stations. In markets with ABC affiliates owned by media giants Sinclair and Nexstar, stations skipped the show entirely, substituting their own content instead. This incident highlights a bigger question that ... Your Local News Anchors Might Welcome Their New Corporate Overlords
Brazil’s Digital Markets Bill: A DMA Through the Back Door? - Truth on the Market
The Brazilian government’s executive branch hosted a political ceremony last week in which it unveiled its “Digital Brazil Agenda,” which proposes six government projects to build a “safer, more competitive, and more innovative digital environment.” The most high-profile of these was the Digital Child and Teenager Act, which would set rules for how social-media platforms ... Brazil’s Digital Markets Bill: A DMA Through the Back Door?
California's LEAD for Kids Act Is Destined to Fail First Amendment Scrutiny - Truth on the Market
California has sought in recent years to take the lead in protecting children from online harms, but the state’s proposed legislative solutions have repeatedly been held up in courts. Assembly Bill 1064, which is currently on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk after clearing both the state Senate and Assembly, appears destined for the same fate. The ... California’s LEAD for Kids Act Is Destined to Fail First Amendment Scrutiny
Complaint Claims Meta Is a Porn Pirate: Will Strike 3 Strike Out? - Truth on the Market
A company that has filed more than 6,000 copyright lawsuits against individual defendants—quickly settling most for amounts carefully calculated below the cost of defense—has now set its sights on Meta, a corporation worth more than $1 trillion. Strike 3 Holdings’ recent lawsuit against the tech giant alleging widespread piracy for training of artificial intelligence represents ... Complaint Claims Meta Is a Porn Pirate: Will Strike 3 Strike Out?
Kimmel, Coercion, and the Public Interest Standard: The Problem of Boundless Government Power - Truth on the Market
Talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension by ABC following pushback from affiliate stations about comments he made Sept. 15 about the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk has been major news. The timing of the decisions by affiliate groups Nexstar and Sinclair to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! from their programming schedule was noteworthy, in that both came ... Kimmel, Coercion, and the Public Interest Standard: The Problem of Boundless Government Power
Beyond the Bark: Brazil’s Prudent Path in Digital Regulation - Truth on the Market
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently endorsed giving the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) much more power to regulate Big Tech, even as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs “on countries whose taxes, legislation and regulations target US big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.” Trump’s declaration ... Beyond the Bark: Brazil’s Prudent Path in Digital Regulation
Reversing the EU Economic Slowdown: Implications for the United States - Truth on the Market
The European Union is on a 20-year economic losing streak. A new research study shows that the EU’s economic slowdown relative to other areas of the developed world is due to bad government policies that can be cured. Reversal of these policies requires political will, as it would involve the shrinking of the size of ... Reversing the EU Economic Slowdown: Implications for the United States
Scale or Fail: Why Paramount Skydance’s Warner Bros Gambit Makes Economic Sense - Truth on the Market
Just weeks after Skydance Media completed its acquisition of Paramount Global, the new company is reportedly preparing a majority cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in its entirety, including its cable networks and movie studio. A Skydance-Warner combination could reshape the global entertainment landscape. Backed by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s substantial family ... Scale or Fail: Why Paramount Skydance’s Warner Bros Gambit Makes Economic Sense
Big Isn’t Necessarily Bad - Truth on the Market
A recurring claim among a certain breed of would-be antitrust reformers—most recently given voice by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) during a June hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee—is that “big is bad.” The claim suffers first and foremost from conceptual ambiguity. Big in what sense? Market share? Revenue? Headcount? Asset size? Geographic scope? ... Big Isn’t Necessarily Bad
The Google Remedies Decision and Big Tech Antitrust - Truth on the Market
U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta’s Sept. 2 remedies opinion in the U.S. v. Google monopolization (Google Search) case is, in large part, a rejection of government regulation of digital platforms in the guise of antitrust. The limited and cabined conduct-related remedies it imposes are far less significant than its rejection of the U.S. Justice Department’s (DOJ) proposed conduct ... The Google Remedies Decision and Big Tech Antitrust
The EU’s Google Adtech Decision: Structural Remedies by Stealth? - Truth on the Market
The European Commission’s €2.95 billion decision against Google arrives amid heightened EU-U.S. trade tensions, the Trump administration’s recent criticism of EU tech regulations, internal disagreements within the Commission, and heated commentary on both sides of the Atlantic. But beyond geopolitics, the decision also raises important legal and policy questions. In particular, the Commission’s apparent request ... The EU’s Google Adtech Decision: Structural Remedies by Stealth?
Paying Whistleblowers to Take Down Cartels - Truth on the Market
Cartel collusion among competitors is widely seen as the “supreme evil of antitrust,” and for more than three decades, competition-law enforcers in the United States and abroad have cooperated to ferret out cartel activity. Beginning in the 1990s, major jurisdictions started to emphasize highly effective “leniency” agreements to get cartel members to inform on their ... Paying Whistleblowers to Take Down Cartels
Antitrust at the Agencies: Moderation in All Things Edition - Truth on the Market
This Just In Judge Amit P. Mehta’s memorandum opinion in the Google Search case has dropped. It’s 230 pages, and I’ve merely skimmed it. A careful discussion–from me or anyone else–will wait a bit. For now, the remedies are quite a bit more than Google had proposed, but at the same time, a good deal ... Antitrust at the Agencies: Moderation in All Things Edition
Comparing the EU DMA to the Search-Query Data-Sharing Remedy in US v Google - Truth on the Market
The “user-side” search-query data remedy carved out by U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta in the just handed-down U.S. v Google decision appears to be animated by a similar intuition (search quality depends on large volumes of click-and-query signals) as the EU Digital Markets Act’s Article 6(11), but they also diverge in important ways. Where ... Comparing the EU DMA to the Search-Query Data-Sharing Remedy in US v Google
US and EU Clash on Promoting Space Commerce and Innovation - Truth on the Market
Commercial competition in outer space is expected to grow rapidly, with major economic benefits, including lowered costs, increased innovation, and the development of new industries. The proposed European Union Space Act, however, threatens to undermine beneficial competition by imposing new regulatory burdens on firms, especially U.S. satellite operators. In contrast, the Trump administration is acting ... US and EU Clash on Promoting Space Commerce and Innovation
Foreign Trade Barriers Threaten American Space Dominance - Truth on the Market
A recently issued White House executive order aims to boost competition and innovation in America’s commercial space industry by cutting state and federal red tape, and by streamlining the permitting and licensure process for launching and receiving spacecraft. Across the pond in the European Union (EU), however, new legislation that unduly singles out U.S. companies ... Foreign Trade Barriers Threaten American Space Dominance
New Regulatory Reform Initiative Could Bolster Trade Negotiations - Truth on the Market
In an Aug. 15 announcement, the White House and U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) pledged to undertake “an effort to identify State laws that significantly and adversely impact the national economy or interstate economic activity and to solicit solutions to address such effects.” This project complements the White House’s earlier April 9 executive order directing the federal antitrust agencies ... New Regulatory Reform Initiative Could Bolster Trade Negotiations
How Fixing Immigration Can Improve Competition and Create Opportunities for the US AI Workforce - Truth on the Market
The White House’s recently released AI Action Plan aims to secure U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence by abolishing red tape and fostering innovation, AI adoption, infrastructure building, and domestic chip manufacturing. To equip and develop the future AI workforce, it pledges public investments in research labs, manufacturing, and technical training programs, as well as tax incentives for businesses ... How Fixing Immigration Can Improve Competition and Create Opportunities for the US AI Workforce
Truth Cartels? The DOJ’s Misguided Leap into Viewpoint Regulation - Truth on the Market
In a surprising move, the U.S. Justice Department’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division has thrown its weight behind a lawsuit that could reshape how courts—and antitrust enforcers—think about competition in digital media. The agency’s statement of interest filed last month in Children’s Health Defense v. Washington Post doesn’t merely take up the legal merits of a questionable ... Truth Cartels? The DOJ’s Misguided Leap into Viewpoint Regulation
Reducing Merger Uncertainty Could Help the American Economy - Truth on the Market
The second Trump administration has been signaling a move away from the Biden administration’s policy of actively discouraging mergers. This change in direction could benefit the U.S. economy. But some merger uncertainty remains, rooted in the administration’s decision to retain 2023 merger guidelines. Targeted revisions to those guidelines—or, at the very least, public pronouncements designed ... Reducing Merger Uncertainty Could Help the American Economy
Self-Preferencing Isn’t a Sin. It’s Often the Way Competition Works. - Truth on the Market
Paris has decided that 2025 is the year to crack down on “autopréférence,” with the Autorité de la Concurrence opening a public consultation in June under France’s new law “to secure and regulate the digital space.” The inquiry asks interested parties to identify cases where a cloud-computing service provider treats its own software better than ... Self-Preferencing Isn’t a Sin. It’s Often the Way Competition Works.
Charter/Cox Merger Review and the Rule of Law - Truth on the Market
Charter Communications Inc. and Cox Communications Inc.—both providers of cable and broadband—are seeking approval of their proposed merger from the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC). While the prior administration’s enforcement agencies—who often relied on static market-share snapshots to pursue antitrust claims and failed to consider broader market dynamics—might have sued to block this ... Charter/Cox Merger Review and the Rule of Law
The EU Proposes a DMA for Space - Truth on the Market
The European Union has a well-established playbook for regulating industries dominated by U.S. firms: Identify a market where American companies are global leaders; Draft sweeping legislation grounded in vague principles like “fairness” or “sustainability”; and Create a regulatory structure that imposes disproportionate burdens on the largest and most successful (and usually foreign) companies. The EU’s ... The EU Proposes a DMA for Space
US-China AI Competition in the Spotlight - Truth on the Market
Both the United States and China are pursuing national policies to promote the development of artificial intelligence (AI). In the United States, the White House’s recently announced AI Action Plan features a deregulatory approach to drive innovation and build an AI infrastructure that could be exported overseas. The Chinese government’s AI plan instead proposes a ... US-China AI Competition in the Spotlight
Getting Real on the NO FAKES Act - Truth on the Market
As the technology landscape moves further into a world of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), there are questions of how well the law will be able to keep up. Sponsored by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), the NO FAKES Act of 2025 (short ... Getting Real on the NO FAKES Act
Claims of Monopsony in the Wireless Industry Don’t Add Up - Truth on the Market
A recent report prepared for NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association by the Brattle Group paints a troubling picture of the U.S. wireless-infrastructure industry. But a closer look at the report’s narrative demonstrates that it is built on faulty premises, misapplied economics, and a failure to connect the dots. While the report serves as a ... Claims of Monopsony in the Wireless Industry Don’t Add Up
The Washington Effect: Will the Brussels Bureaucracy Bend? - Truth on the Market
Much has been said about the so-called “Brussels Effect”—that is, the European Union’s animating conceit that its mission is to make rules for the entire world. Without irony, the EU has embraced the meme that others innovate, while the EU regulates. Recent shifts in U.S. trade policy have introduced the threat of tariffs against jurisdictions ... The Washington Effect: Will the Brussels Bureaucracy Bend?
OECD Cloud-Computing Competition Study Offers Solutions in Search of a Problem - Truth on the Market
A recent Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy paper on competition in cloud computing frames the sector as fragile, with an imminent threat of anticompetitive behavior. As the paper notes, 70-80% of the global cloud share is controlled by Microsoft, AWS (Amazon Web Services), and Google. This paints the picture of a concentrated ... OECD Cloud-Computing Competition Study Offers Solutions in Search of a Problem
Crime and Punishment Online: Evaluating the TAKE IT DOWN Act - Truth on the Market
Large language models (LLMs) have become a major touchpoint at the state and local level in recent years. LLMs’ ability to create images, videos, music, writing, and other artistic works of varying social value has sparked a rush across the states to introduce legislation and regulations to limit the possible harms that might ensue. More ... Crime and Punishment Online: Evaluating the TAKE IT DOWN Act