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Transcript: John Ioannidis Keynote

The following is a transcript of John Ioannidis's keynote address at the 2025 Stigler Center Antitrust and Competition Conference—Economic Concentration and the Marketplace of Ideas.

The Historically Diverse Goals of European Competition Recommend a New Emphasis on Democracy

Marios Constantine Iacovides discusses his and Konstantinos Stylianou’s empirical investigations into how the goals of competition policy have evolved over time. They find that a multitude of goals have always been present in judicial and regulatory decisions, but the emphasis on certain goals has vacillated in response to the concerns of the time. Contemporary concerns about the health of democracy suggest a revival of ordoliberalism and protection of the competitive process.

OpenAI Abandons Move to For-Profit Status After Backlash. Now What?

After public backlash, OpenAI has abandoned plans to restructure to remove control by its nonprofit entity. ProMarket reviews the history of OpenAI’s internal tensions to pursue profits over its founding purpose, artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, and what questions remain after the firm’s retreat.

What the Super-App Clash Between Apple and WeChat Reveals About Platform Competition

Regulators worldwide are debating how to rein in Big Tech's dominance over app distribution. Tiffany Tsai and Chuyue Tian explore how Apple’s clash with China’s WeChat complicates standard assumptions about platform competition and what it might mean for the next wave of antitrust enforcement.

Conscience Incorporated

The following is an excerpt from Michael Posner’s recent book, Conscience Incorporated: Pursue Profits While Protecting Human Rights, reprinted here with permission from NYU Press.

The FTC Is Threatening Free Speech

Aaron Edlin and Carl Shapiro respond to Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson’s keynote speech at the 2025 Stigler Center antitrust and competition conference, in which he lays out his approach to regulating the content moderation policies of the major social media platforms. They explain why Ferguson’s approach threatens the exercise of free speech, is inconsistent with antitrust law, and politicizes the agency.

Transcript: Fireside Chat With Roger Alford and Doha Mekki

The following is a transcript of Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roger Alford and former Principle Deputy Assistant Attorney Doha Mekki in conversation with Bloomberg reporter Josh Sisco.

Google Ad Tech Delivered an Important Victory for the Government Using a Flawed Tying Rule

Herbert Hovenkamp writes that the court presiding over the Google Ad Tech case gave the government an important win. However, by relying on the per se tying rule instead of rule of reason, the court perpetuated a flawed court precedent that can preclude serious market analysis for competitive harms.

Are Big Tech’s Quasi-Mergers With AI Startups Anticompetitive?

The Federal Trade Commission’s case against Meta for monopolizing personal social media through its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp serves as a warning of allowing Big Tech companies to acquire nascent competitors in the artificial intelligence market through quasi-mergers that dodge government scrutiny. Based on new research, Alexandros Kazimirov argues that antitrust agencies can look at a combination of circumstantial evidence, including market product proximity, price premiums and product discontinuation, to help adjust their approach to keep AI markets contestable, rather than trying to restore contestability ten years from now.

How Does Venture Capital Shape Biotech Innovation?

In new research, Xuelin Li, Sijie Wang, Jiajie Xu, and Xiang Zheng find that the involvement of specialized venture capital firms influences a biotech startup’s drug portfolio by focusing research and development on fewer products.

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