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1 week ago | 
truthonthemarket.com | Brian Albrecht |Alden Abbott |Eric Fruits
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing antitrust case against Meta has brought network effects into the spotlight, as the agency’s complaint and opening statement both lean heavily on networks as a source of competitive harm. But the commission’s arguments fundamentally misunderstand how network effects interact with competition in digital markets. Far from being solely anticompetitive moats, network effects create nuanced competitive dynamics that the FTC fails to acknowledge.
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1 week ago | 
laweconcenter.org | Eric Fruits |Kristian Stout |Ben Sperry |Geoffrey Manne
Regulatory Comments I.
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3 weeks ago | 
truthonthemarket.com | Mario Zúñiga |Daniel Gilman |Brian Albrecht |Eric Fruits
The European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Android Auto judgment, delivered in late February, could mark a radical shift in how courts interpret the European Union’s essential-facilities doctrine, as well as the legal standard applied to “refusal to deal” cases. My colleague Giuseppe Colangelo has a great working paper analyzing the decision and its potential consequences.
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3 weeks ago | 
truthonthemarket.com | Daniel Gilman |Brian Albrecht |Eric Fruits |Joe Sims
Author’s Note: Sometimes “quasi” means “sort of” or, as Merriam-Webster’s would have it, “having some resemblance usually by possession of certain attributes.” And sometimes, “some resemblance” means “not very much.”On March 18, President Donald Trump fired—or purported to fire—the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter. Bedoya promptly tweeted that he’d been “illegally” fired.
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4 weeks ago | 
laweconcenter.org | Geoffrey Manne |Brian Albrecht |Eric Fruits
Presentations & Interviews Geoff Manne on the Rationale and Goals of Digital Competition Regulations ICLE President Geoffrey A. Manne discusses the rationale and goals of digital competition regulations in a presentation to Argentina’s Foro Competencia. Video of the full presentation is embedded below. Geoff’s presentation slides are attached. VIDEO
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1 month ago | 
truthonthemarket.com | Julian Morris |Eric Fruits |Brian Albrecht |Geoffrey Manne
U.S. Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio Cortes (D-N.Y.) have introduced legislation that would cap credit-card interest rates at 10%, with the claim that it would help poorer Americans. Unfortunately, both economic theory and centuries of evidence demonstrate that the effect would be quite the opposite.
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1 month ago | 
truthonthemarket.com | Eric Fruits |Brian Albrecht |Geoffrey Manne
Modern tech markets share several key economic characteristics with the telecommunications markets of the recent past, a new working paper from Georgetown Law’s Jonathan Nuechterlein and Howard Shelanski argues. And while telecom regulators have over the years sought to address these key issues of network effects, economies of scale, and switching costs through various interventions, the paper notes that not all of these approaches were successful.
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1 month ago | 
truthonthemarket.com | Alden Abbott |Brian Albrecht |Geoffrey Manne |Eric Fruits
A prospective trade deal between the United States and the United Kingdom could, if handled correctly, be a catalyst to spur global economic growth through enhanced trade and regulatory reform. This would require recognition by other major trading nations of the advantages of removing regulatory obstacles to trade liberalization. BackgroundA Feb.
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1 month ago | 
truthonthemarket.com | Alden Abbott |Brian Albrecht |Geoffrey Manne |Eric Fruits
The major Western industrialized nations have experienced dramatically slower economic growth in recent decades. This slowdown has been particularly pronounced in the EU, though the United States has suffered, as well. Regulatory, tax, trade, and energy policy reforms that reduce market distortions and provide incentives for investment, production, and innovation could substantially address this problem.
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1 month ago | 
truthonthemarket.com | Brian Albrecht |Geoffrey Manne |Eric Fruits
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust suit against Amazon, originally filed in October 2023, is scheduled for trial in October 2026. While we’ve previously explored the market-definition questions at the center of this case, several other economic concepts will be equally important in determining whether Amazon has violated antitrust laws.
