Truth on the Market
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Truth on the Market, a group of law professors and economists offering commentary on law, business, economics, and more. We launched this website to provide the metaphysical subjective truth on abstract, concrete, and invisible markets throughout the civilized world. We hope you find some of our posts insightful, thought-provoking, and interesting.
Truth on the Market
12h ago
In this “Age of the Administrative State,” federal agencies have incredible latitude to impose policies without much direction or input from Congress. President Barack Obama fully pulled off the mask in 2014, when he announced “[w]e are not just going to be waiting for legislation,” declaring “I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone.” Subsequent presidents have similarly discovered that they had pens and phones, too.
But that’s not how things are supposed to work. Sometimes—some would say most times—Congress needs to step in as voters’ elected representatives and legislate the country’s pri ..read more
Truth on the Market
12h ago
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.
These promises were based on “questionable, conclusory, and unsubstantiated” assumptions about how d ..read more
Truth on the Market
12h ago
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.
The case focuses on Google’s partnerships with browser developers—especially Apple—and major players in the Android world. These partnerships do not block rival search engines, but they ..read more
Truth on the Market
12h ago
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.
By emphasizing the merger’s potential to enhance Kroger’s bargaining leverage in union negotiation ..read more
Truth on the Market
5d ago
A year 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).
The EU has touted its new regulation as essential to ensure “fairness and contestability” in digital markets. And since it entered into force early last month, the DMA has ..read more
Truth on the Market
5d ago
Allan, you have a remarkably high public profile in Australia and are known to most of the Australian population as ex-ACCC chair. Could you please give us a bit on your background and how you got into competition law?
I did degrees in law and economics at the University of Western Australia and a PhD in economics at Duke University. Then I was a research fellow at the Department of Applied Economics, University of Cambridge, where I was for a few years, where I wrote a book on how prices and wages were regulated in the UK in those years.
I returned to Australia and subseque ..read more
Truth on the Market
1w ago
How much do you take potential antitrust concerns into account when evaluating investments or mergers and acquisitions? Has this changed over time?
Antitrust is a big part of M&A and the work I do in analyzing deals at Rangeley Capital. It has always been important, but the importance has grown with this administration’s activist approach. Across Republican and Democratic administrations, it had a largely economic basis. But the current Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) have made it more partisan and political.
For example, a few years ago, we were sig ..read more
Truth on the Market
1w ago
When it was passed into law, the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was heralded by supporters as a key step toward fairness and contestability in online markets. It has unfortunately become increasingly clear that reality might not live up to those expectations. Indeed, there is mounting evidence that European consumers’ online experiences have been degraded following the DMA’s entry into force.
The perception that the DMA has been a failure is beginning to motivate a not insignificant amount of finger pointing in Brussels. So-called “gatekeeper” firms have blamed heavy-handed r ..read more
Truth on the Market
1w ago
The big news in telecommunications policy last week wasn’t really news at all—the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its proposed rules to classify broadband internet under Title II of the Communications Act. Supporters frame the proposed rules as “net neutrality,” but those provisions—a ban on blocking, throttling, or engaging in paid or affiliated-prioritization arrangements—actually comprise just a small part of the 435-page document.
Needless to say, I haven’t had time to give the proposed rules a thorough going-over. And further needless to say, there’s not much of a rush. T ..read more
Truth on the Market
1w ago
It’s been an eventful two weeks for those following the story of the European Union’s implementation of the Digital Markets Act. On April 18, the European Commission began a series of workshops with the companies designated as “gatekeepers” under the DMA: Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, and Microsoft. And even as those workshops were still ongoing, the Commission announced noncompliance investigations against Alphabet, Apple, and Meta. Finally, the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) held its own session on DMA implementation.
Many aspects o ..read more