ProMarket’s writers review the topics that defined our coverage in 2024.
Google. Lots of Google. The future of competition in the European Union. There are harms to the consumer, and then there are harms to Swifties. In 2024, ProMarket published 257 articles. These were the topics that defined our coverage.
Here at ProMarket, we talk a lot about antitrust and competition policy, and we kicked off the past year with a symposium discussing the findings of a paper from professors Filippo Lancieri, Eric Posner, and Luigi Zingales, who explored the reasons why antitrust enforcement had declined in the United States beginning in the 1970s. Our participants pushed back against the authors’ argument that the main culprit was big business capture of the government, instead exploring the main interest groups that have historically flexed their influence over antitrust policy and enforcement and the less cynical reasons why these other groups may have acquiesced to big business interests.
In late March, the Department of Justice sued Apple for monopolizing the smartphone market. Four antitrust experts provided their thoughts on the merits of the case. How does the case compare to the prototypical twenty-first century Big Tech case, Microsoft? Has Apple, which created the smartphone as we (Americans) know it, been a fulcrum or obstacle to innovation, and how will this case determine the future trajectory of technological innovation?
But when it comes to Big Tech, surely 2024 was Google’s year. After arguments concluded in late 2023 to determine if Google had monopolized the internet search market, we all waited with bated breath as judge Amit Mehta prepared to deliver his verdict, which he did in September, finding in favor of the Department of Justice. Even before the verdict, our contributors had discussed what remedies might be appropriate to open up Google’s monopoly if found guilty. We published arguments for remedies from default choice screens to the divestment of Chrome and Android.
Google Search was not the only case to trouble the tech behemoth. In an expansive investigation, professor Christian Bergqvist documented over 100 antitrust cases against Google spanning 23 jurisdictions. This includes Google’s ad tech case, which got started in the United States this September. Over in the European Union, the European Court of Justice upheld the European Commission’s 2.4 billion euro fine against the company for favoring its own services on its Google shopping platform.
Antitrust in 2024 was not all about Big Tech. In the beginning of the year, we asked three experts to predict the trends that would define antitrust in the U.S. in 2024, and all three discussed labor. Indeed, in April the Federal Trade Commission banned most noncompetes clauses, which prevent workers from leaving jobs for competitors. Several cases concerning labor, instigated both by the government and private plaintiffs, wound their way through the courts. This included the FTC’s lawsuit to block the merger between Kroger and Albertsons. A federal judge ruled in favor of the agency in early December.
And in between all of this were the DOJ’s lawsuits against Live Nation-Ticketmaster and Visa for monopolizing respectively the live entertainment and debit network markets and the FTC’s lawsuit against pharmacy benefit managers for anticompetitive practices raising drug prices for consumers.
Meanwhile, over in Europe, the main topic of conversation was a series of reports on economic and competition woes in the EU, which culminated in a report from former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Our writers parsed Draghi’s report for suggestions of how flailing competition with America and China might require market consolidation to produce (supra)national champions, and if such a strategy would ultimately help or harm consumers and workers.
ProMarket also ran several symposia discussing hot button antitrust topics, including if the Big Tech partnerships with artificial intelligence startups are a cause for concern, on the antitrust goals for the next presidential administration, and, to cap the year, a discussion that asked if outgoing FTC Chair Lina Khan and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who are often affiliated with the Neo-Brandeisian or anti-monopoly movement, ushered in a paradigm shift in how we think about and practice antitrust. With Donald Trump re-taking the Oval Office, the symposium often turned into a discussion of the enforcers’ legacy.
ProMarket covers more than antitrust. In the year of elections, we ran a series exploring the political economy of populism and its various causes and manifestations. We also ran a series exploring the political economy of municipal finance and another exploring how the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright will limit the rulemaking discretion of federal agencies and their ability to regulate the U.S. economy. Elon Musk also popped up a few times in our coverage, as his lawsuit against OpenAI for allegedly abandoning its nonprofit commitments and his attempt to secure a hefty pay package in a Delaware court raised questions about corporate governance and democracy.
Thank you to all of our readers who joined us this eventful year. If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to our weekly newsletter, Special Interest, to keep up-to-date on all things antitrust and political economy. Happy holidays and New Year, and see you again in 2025.
Articles represent the opinions of their writers, not necessarily those of the University of Chicago, the Booth School of Business, or its faculty.
