antitrust and competition

Warner Bros. (“Warner”), a prized and consequential media company, is once again on the auction block, and both Netflix and Paramount Skydance are competing to buy it. Barak Orbach observes that bidders’ appetites for prized media enterprises often foster undue optimism about the feasibility of successfully integrating them. He argues that antitrust scrutiny of any acquisition of Warner would likely underscore the need to modernize certain antitrust doctrines and analytical frameworks.

In new research, Niuniu Zhang discusses how regulators can add “noise” to market data to preclude tacit collusion through algorithmic pricing software without hampering legitimate market practices.

Live Nation-Ticketmaster has filed a motion for summary judgment to persuade the judge presiding over the antitrust lawsuit against the company that the government has not turned up enough evidence of wrongdoing or harm to consumers. Diana L. Moss refutes the motion’s main arguments and defends the government’s lawsuit.

Nancy L. Rose and Jonathan Sallet respond to a recent article by Herbert Hovenkamp, in which he argues that the merger-efficiencies defense, which requires merging parties to demonstrate competitive benefits of a merger in order to rebut a prima facie case of harm presented by plaintiffs, is too burdensome and runs contrary to empirical evidence.

Summary Teaser: In a new working paper, Jakob Beuschlein, Jósef Sigurdsson, and Horng Chern Wong find that workers at acquired firms in Sweden experience wage cuts. Rather than from the increased monopsony power of employers, these wage cuts are due to rent redistribution toward higher CEO pay.

In the second of two articles, Jeff Alvares analyzes the competing arguments around Pix under World Trade Organization rules—a debate involving broader questions about how international trade rules need to reflect the complexity of public services in the digital economy.

In the first of two articles, Jeff Alvares explores how Brazil’s public digital payments system achieved transformative financial inclusion through vertically integrated infrastructure, creating a model now facing scrutiny under international trade law and raising questions about the boundaries of legitimate public infrastructure provision.

In new research, Norman Bishara and Lorenzo Luisetto analyze the nature and proliferation of state legislative activity to regulate noncompete agreements since 2009. In the absence of a federal rule, these developments represent a promising step toward curbing the abuse of noncompete agreements.

Jasper van den Boom provides a synopsis of his new book, Regulating Competition in the Digital Network Industry, which comes out at Cambridge University Press in December. The book can be pre-ordered here.

The largest artificial intelligence firms are able to afford access to quality data from content producers like the New York Times, while smaller startups are being left out. This dynamic risks concentrating markets and creating unassailable barriers to entry. Compulsory licenses offer one solution to lower barriers to entry for nascent AI firms without harming content producers and consumers, writes Kristelia García.