Below are highlights from the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights hearing with Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Makan Delrahim and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons. Videos are hyperlinked with the quote. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Chairman of Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights: “These critics are […]
At Jackson Hole, economists discussed the rise of economy-wide corporate concentration and its impact on the macroeconomy, including investment, wage, and monetary policy. Tech critics have worked to connect this trend to tech, but – as we’ve noted before – tech bucks the trends seen in other sectors of the economy. In fact, regarding investment, […]
Last week former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post arguing that Europe’s antitrust regime is “stronger” than America’s. But, as Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim recently said, “I don’t measure the antitrust division’s success by the fines or convictions we get or how many cases in litigation we bring. […]
Now a few weeks removed from the European Commission’s (EC) “bizarre” Android decision, experts have continued to weigh in. As James Stewart wrote in the New York Times, “It’s hard to find any antitrust expert, European or American, who has endorsed the logic or outcome of the ruling by the European Commission.” The EC’s conclusion […]
Yesterday, Luigi Zingales defended the EC’s fine of Google’s Android arguing the absence of similar enforcement have raised cell phone costs for consumers. Below are three issues with Zingales’ defense, but more broadly Zingales fails to mention 1) Android is free and operators were always able to pre-install competing apps and 2) the U.S. tech […]
In reaction to the European Commission’s Android decision, a chorus of people sounded the alarm, highlighting the choice, competition, and innovation Android has brought to the market and the negative impacts this decision will have on phone makers, developers, and consumers. It’s also important to remember the FTC conducted a multi-year investigation into these allegations, […]
The latest issue of The Economist features an article that blames America’s leading tech services for allegedly quashing tech start-ups. The piece misses the mark in five key ways: 1. Investment in the sector is at a 20-year high, driving 57 startups to unicorn status last year — but only one in Europe. A World […]
This week, National Review published an opinion piece that attempted to make a “conservative case” for government breaking up leading tech services. It’s important to note, however, that asking for heavy-handed government intervention is far from the conservative mainstream. There are an abundance of thinkers and experts on the right and also the left, who […]
On Monday, Pew released a new survey from January 2018 that finds 88 percent of online U.S. adults feel the internet has mostly been a good thing personally, while 70 percent find the internet has been a good thing for society. Most mentioned increased access to information thanks to the internet, while others mentioned the […]
Speaking in a personal capacity at CCIA’s luncheon panel discussion held during the ABA Antitrust Spring Meetings, Bruce Hoffman, Acting Director of the Bureau of Competition at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), argued current U.S. antitrust law is “the result of decades of experience in the United States with failed standards, such as protecting […]
Hostility to innovation and technology diminishes the incredible Internet-enabled opportunities that leading tech services provide: empowering consumers, driving prices down and increasing choice, and providing platforms to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. It has given us a golden era of entertainment, knowledge, and everything from fashion startups, to booming mom and pop stores, to the latest app.
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