antitrust and competition
Do Pharmaceutical Acquisitions Undermine Innovation by Disrupting Human Capital?
Antitrust authorities increasingly assess mergers through the lens of innovation, particularly in research-intensive sectors such as pharmaceuticals. In new research, Carmine Ornaghi and Lorenzo Cassi show how mergers disrupt human capital and reduce innovation in what they call manslaughter acquisitions.
AI Transforms Search in a Way That Could Make Google’s Default Advantage Stronger
Judge Amit Mehta’s remedies for Google’s search monopoly stopped short of banning payments for default search placement, reflecting the hope that generative AI will erode the power of traditional search. Cristian Santesteban argues the opposite: in the AI era of search, defaults may matter more by steering critical data and learning signals from AI-powered search sessions to the most dominant product. This mechanism can potentially compound Google’s advantage.
What 150 Years of the Telephone Teaches Us About Regulating Digital Communications
On the 150th anniversary of the first telephone call, John Haigh, Nancy Rose, and Jonathan Sallet reflect on lessons from the history of telecommunications...
Repealing P2B-Regulation as Part of Digital Omnibus Allows the EU To AI-Proof the DMA
The EU’s proposed Digital Omnibus to simplify digital regulation suggests repealing the 2019 Platform-to-Business Regulation. This poses a problem for the Digital Markets Act, which relies on the P2B-Regulation for how to define core platform services like search engines. Moving forward with the repeal will require legislators to renegotiate first the DMA, which is necessary anyways to adapt the law to the age of artificial intelligence, writes Jan-Frederick Göhsl.
The Jedi Blue Network Bidding Agreement Is Monopoly Maintenance
Previous plaintiffs have argued unsuccessfully that Google’s Jedi Blue agreement with Facebook is anticompetitive and illegal. The agreement grants Facebook preferential access to Google’s dominant digital advertisement system in exchange for not building competing technologies. The plaintiffs’ challenges to Jedi Blue would have been on stronger ground had they argued that Jedi Blue is compelling evidence of illegal monopoly maintenance, as occurred in Microsoft, writes Joshua B. Gray.
Brazil Shows That Protecting Children and Digital Competition Are Complementary Efforts
Brazil’s new child protection law has gained less global press than its new digital competition bill. However, the two are complementary efforts that demonstrate how governments must rethink how different regulatory concerns and mandates blend into one another in the digital economy.
The Nexstar-Tegna Merger Will Raise Your Cable Bill, and Then Some
The proposed merger of local broadcast television station owners Nexstar and Tegna will create a behemoth that threatens to raise consumer prices for multi-video programming subscriptions, increase advertising rates for local businesses, and reduce viewers’ exposure to diverse viewpoints. The government can and should block the merger but politics threatens to usurp law and economics, writes Diana L. Moss.
How To Link Competition Law With Democracy
In the second of two articles, Stavros Makris and Filip Lubinski discuss how governments can reimagine competition policy to protect democracy and citizen welfare without abandoning traditional consumer welfare goals like innovation.
Has Competition Law Failed Democracy?
In the first of two articles, Stavros Makris and Filip Lubinski discuss the connection between economic competition and democracy and how competition law allowed Big Tech to undermine both.
When Search Becomes Advice and Advice Raises Prices
In new experimental research, Amit Zac and Michal Gal find that users who use artificial intelligence chatbots to conduct online shopping are being directed to established brands at higher prices without a clear improvement in quality. The logic of AI algorithms risks consolidating markets around established firms while reducing consumer welfare for shoppers.
