EC, here.
Sunday, March 05, 2023
The "most fabulous conference @BruxConf2023", unrolled
Historic times that we are living right now @vestager
A *very* long chapter on subsidies, understandably - entrepreneurs, not taxpayers, creating jobs...#BruxConf2023
Green claims - calling the green bluff if we see it @vestager #BruxConf2023
Digital markets have not fulfilled their promise(s)..."we cannot be accused of having been too fast" @vestager #BruxConf2023
"Reformulating concerns" - direct focus on consumers themselves #Apple
"Full toolbox" 🗜️🔧🔨✂️🔭🪛🪚🔮
International cooperation in merger control important indeed - the @WSJ had an interesting article on that, recently...
"We have war in Europe"@vestager top of our mind
Political economy, the idea of cheap is going away @RanaForoohar #BruxConf2023
One of my personal heroes 👉@chopracfpb
Promoting entry, promoting resilience, a way of *American/Germanic* thinking? "It's a new book that we are writing" #BruxConf2023
[we had the "new book" discussion only yesterday evening with a dear friend economist]
Antitrust is the bare minimum - open banking's plug, sector regulation @chopracfpb
"We all know why" US Big Tech legislation wasn't passed @chopracfpb - the EU #DMAMiracle instead - not perfect but workable
Yep, new economic paradigm not very clear yet - exciting times! @RanaForoohar
"It's settled a bit that it didn't work" @chopracfpb
"This isn't the coffee break" @Caffar3Cristina makes clear
Let's discuss the Biden Executive Order - Really @superwuster #BruxConf2023
[Pity I wrote this concurrences.com/IMG/pdf/06.con… too early]
"It's an expert thing" - well, I think that effects of the shift should also be palpable (kitchen table topic, e.g. "look, we have interoperability we grandma's favourite service!"]
Exculpatory narratives (@superwuster), demand for them and agencies believing them - what could possibly go wrong?
In full praise of the New Brandeisians, apparently @AMundt_BKartA #BruxConf2023
"Not close to the more economic approach" but revising the economic toolbox @AMundt_BKartA #BruxConf2023
...with a little help from the German legislator - and more coming 😉#BruxConf2023
Thrilled that many are mentioning UK open banking - it's much about interoperability (open APIs, etc.), guys #BruxConf2023
More economics, less enforcement, suboptimal economic effects @TomValletti - one merger per year prohibited by @EU_Competition
The "Orthodox but progressive" economist says, please, not more "allegedly sophisticated economics" - incentives, resources all wrong @TomValletti - simple and coherent economics needed
...economics helpful in understanding business strategy, incentives, etc. Agree, but well beyond IO, if I may
The amazing @johnmarknewman up now: "the law has some catching up to do"
Rusty legal tools - but not dead law #Meta_Within - they are on the table, and sharp enough
Political economy we don't want: companies as central planners ("buying instead of building") @johnmarknewman
"Antitrust is failing" and this hurts @rodgsims #BruxConf2023
More structural provisions in merger control and more per se rules @rodgsims
"Empire strikes back" moment might be coming @superwuster
Common law nature of some of the changes
@superwuster
- [guidelines and other means can help institutionalize them, of course]
@superwuster
- [guidelines and other means can help institutionalize them, of course]
"Data inflation" - legislators didn't see it @AMundt_BKartA
Discussions, postures ok, but achieving real change is plan A - Andrea Coscelli 🙌 #BruxConf2023
Not a 'Chicago style' simple theory is what we need, but a set of strong, flexible principles @johnmarknewman #BruxConf2023
Ristretto and some fresh air urgently needed - but no Belgian patisserie here
"Non-compete" should be a huge red flag @RKSlaughterFTC #BruxConf2023
A very healthy industry focusing on suing the FTC @RKSlaughterFTC - not unexpected
A history teacher before going to law school, Doha Mekki #BruxConf2023 - very useful in the current debate
AI/ML - how is the role of data changing? Doha Mekki
Decarbonization changing affected industries, but how? @BCoeure #BruxConf2023
Plugging the legal gaps: more international cooperation in antitrust needed - Margarida Matos Rita #BruxConf2023
Now the orthodox and progressive Martijin Snoep - also national *regulator* under the DMA (nice he mentioned it) #BruxConf2023
Nice case before EU courts in merger control just mentioned "how significant" should be each individual transaction be if there are many?
[New Competition Tool off the table - still mourning myself]
Fairness and exploitative abuses - current Apple cases moving in that direction, we are hearing #BruxConf2023
More sustainable supply chains in order to avoid (?) the climate disaster - Article 101.3 comes to rescue, with a couple of nudges (4.000.000 🐄in the NL)
"Whole-of-government approach" beyond the FTC/DOJ [some agencies dragging their feet, however - my impression] #BruxConf2023
A Cross-Atlantic chicken problem discussed like now, great! - #kitchentabletopic #BruxConf2023
"Don't move, this isn't lunch time yet" @Caffar3Cristina
"Courts have considerable leeway" AG Kokott #BruxConf2023
1) Containing market power, corporate liability extended;
2) Strengthening defence rights of companies of market power - more economic approach still blossoming in the EU - perhaps revising EU Art. 102 guidelines might have helped;
2) Strengthening defence rights of companies of market power - more economic approach still blossoming in the EU - perhaps revising EU Art. 102 guidelines might have helped;
[Worrying, from a Judge: more economic approach here to stay, underenforcement a real risk]
3) Killer acquisitions: plugging a gap possible 🙌
Supplementary application of Art.102 (2), Art. 22 MR...Illumina good news so far, of course.
DMA: gaps plugging in the area of merger control? 🤔#BruxConf2023
*(2)* was actually (?) - very sceptical myself 😊
Jonathan Kanter #BruxConf2023, all in praise of @Caffar3Cristina 👏👏👏
"We are just getting started" @JusticeATR
Digital:
1) How does competition in this industry present itself? A tough but essential Q. "We need models that fit facts":
-intermediaries, often endless possibilities of anticompetitive behaviour
-- concentration, tipping markets (interrelated actions)
-- setting the rules
1) How does competition in this industry present itself? A tough but essential Q. "We need models that fit facts":
-intermediaries, often endless possibilities of anticompetitive behaviour
-- concentration, tipping markets (interrelated actions)
-- setting the rules
Self-preferencing label, not a safe-harbour Jonathan Kanter - #BruxConf2023
Structural reliefs always on the table (thus, e.g., "incentives to interoperate" may also be triggered 👍), as already shown -BTW
"An all-economist panel" - haven't we just heard that the more economic approach has caused underenforcement 🤔? Reflection on what went wrong but able to come up with something better, now? #BruxConf2023
Models getting it wrong - because, e.g., free entry assumptions are, well, fugazi - nobody to blame?
Innovation and theories of harm @johnvanreenen (me: not waiting for IO economists to develop them); praising ex-ante regulation (also in order to incrementally build expertise, an important point made by Chiara @Arcep on Monday)
Yes, gatekeepers are going to drag their feet...So what 😊? The DMA is powerful (it helps if economists might read all those complex provisions)
Overinvesting ("in buying") in order to keep out the competition @jan_eeckhout
Network theory of market power - nodes and links @BPellegrino_UMD - no need to define markets (well, this is becoming less important in any case 😉) #BruxConf2023
Working in the @FTC trenches, Aviv Nevo - we need "more economics in terms of being broader" #BruxConf2023
Transaction values matter, says Chiara Fumagalli. Well, the DMA at least is shining some light on all the transactions by gatekeepers - focusing on the high-value ones as a second step, perhaps -#BruxConf2023
Upcoming Merger Guidelines @Susan_Athey
What's competition, in this setting? Increasing barriers to entry, blocking a nascent competitor, future competition, and so on...
What's competition, in this setting? Increasing barriers to entry, blocking a nascent competitor, future competition, and so on...
Thinking about market definition "more realistically", to avoid "confusion", and deriving the relevant market directly from the facts @Susan_Athey #BruxConf2023 [actually, at least in Meta/Within, it was actually not much of a burden]
Pierre Régibeau - killer acquisitions below the threshold are a thing #BruxConf2023
PR still wishing we could devote some (academic, possibly) thinking to things we could be better - don't getting "crazy about" new theories of harm because, of course, we have so much time as we like because in the long term we'll be all dead in any case #BruxConf2023 OK
Turning point: Furman Review - Sarah Cardell @CMAgovUK
Uncertainty as dealt in the UK merger guidelines - one of my favourite reads - also the UK Court "liked" them BTW #BruxConf2023
Economic framework we need: no labels, not much overlaid complexity, but they should be helpful in explaining how competition in reality works (commercial realities) - it's not a precise science, we might occasionally get it wrong - Brava
[Personal note: my deep frustration as an antitrust legal scholar having to cope with totally unrealistic Chicago theories developed into a PhD on vertical restraints embracing broader economic theories - 20 y. ago]
Do we need an antitrust or already a much broader policy/regulatory discussion on generative AI? #BruxConf2023
Trying to understand the tech issues - and then the adtech case came together @KenPaxtonTX #BruxConf2023
Stéphanie Yon-Courtin blocked me on Twitter: I respect her choice 😶
"Democratic convergence on what we wanted to achieve" @FiloBXL #BruxConf2023
DMA: a new form of regulatory supervision - as written in the law.
Platforms constantly changing the rules of the road @doctorow
Are we celebrating the wrong type of innovation? - @ArielEzrachi
[BTW - Art. 7 DMA is not *at all* backward looking 😎]
Before the 🍾starts to flow: Olivier Guersent on ducks and chickens #BruxConf2023
A new generation of Article 102 cases against the background of the DMA - not the end of antitrust - (agreed) OG
[Wrong remedies in the past, shouldn't we start taking some risks as done in the US and the UK, asks Cristina?]
"We will do it again"
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