Natasha The Great, here.
Monday, December 11, 2023
Saturday, December 02, 2023
On innovation and competition at the OECD: happy to help, if I can!
I was only once at the OECD before - as an observer (the topic was Big Data, with Annabelle Gawer and Hal Varian, great fun - my take here).
Next time soon (and determined to enjoy myself, whatever).
Some of the work I've done specifically on this topic (although I stealthily applied evolutionary/innovation arguments in almost everything I wrote):
- Early 2005 article with Wolfgang Kerber (already Doktorvater at that time): EU Competition Policy, Vertical Restraints, and Innovation: An Analysis from an Evolutionary Perspective
- My PhD Thesis in innovation economics started in a pre-digital (?) age: Zur Beurteilung vertikaler Beschränkungen in der europäischen Wettbewerbspolitik aus evolutionsökonomischer Sicht (Münchner Schriften zum Europäischen und Internationalen Kartellrecht) (also second-hand)
- This article summarizing some results of my thesis in French: Une perspective économique évolutionniste à l'égard des restrictions verticales
- This short piece on Android in which I applied a spurious dynamic capabilities approach to ecosystems: Digital Platforms and Antitrust: Towards a More Techno-Economic Approach
- This article about incentives to innovate in the Microsoft EU decision The Incentives Balance Test in the EU Microsoft Case: A More 'Economics-Based' Approach?
- This draft paper with Wolfgang Kerber presented at Ascola 2019 on the concept of innovation spaces in Dow/Dupont: Dow/Dupont: Another Step Towards a Proper Assessment Concept of Innovation Effects of Mergers
- This with Luigi Marengo on IP and evolutionary economics: Dynamic Inefficiencies of Intellectual Property Rights from an Evolutionary/Problem-Solving Perspective: Some Insights on Computer Software and Reverse Engineering
- On an early killer acquisition in the digital sector Open Source and Merger Policy: Insights from the EU Oracle/Sun Decision
- On a dynamic approach for the assessment of buyer power Il potere verticale della domanda
- Short ProMarket piece on Gen AI and innovation: Next-Generation Antitrust Policy in an AI-Driven World
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Monday, November 27, 2023
Saturday, November 25, 2023
Monday, November 20, 2023
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Conceptions of innovation in the DMA
Thursday, November 09, 2023
Potential Competition and Partial Acquisitions and Concluding Remarks
Merger Guidelines discussed by nice "Utah" people, Video here.
More:
Wednesday, November 08, 2023
G7 Competition Authorities and Policymakers’ Summit Digital Competition Communiqué: Commitment to Address Competition Concerns Arising from Emerging Technologies
Tuesday, November 07, 2023
Monday, November 06, 2023
Thursday, November 02, 2023
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Monday, October 30, 2023
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Monopoly Power Is the Elephant in the Room in the AI Debate
M. von Thun (Open Markets Institute), here.
Saturday, October 21, 2023
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
ICN 2023 Barcelona: Recommended online watching
18 October
- 9.30: Reynders keynoteTuesday, October 17, 2023
Monday, October 16, 2023
Sustainability and Competition: From Hot Topic to Business As Usual?
Kluwer Competition Law Blog, here.
Friday, October 13, 2023
Thursday, October 12, 2023
Monday, October 09, 2023
Saturday, October 07, 2023
Thursday, October 05, 2023
Wednesday, October 04, 2023
Tuesday, October 03, 2023
Monday, October 02, 2023
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Friday, September 08, 2023
Monday, September 04, 2023
Thursday, August 31, 2023
New draft paper: ‘Compliance by design’ with the messenger interoperability obligation under the Digital Markets Act
Me, comments much welcome, here.
BTW, I'll resume posting "properly" next week.
Saturday, August 12, 2023
Friday, August 04, 2023
Thursday, August 03, 2023
Wednesday, August 02, 2023
Monday, July 31, 2023
Friday, July 28, 2023
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Analyzing the European Union AI Act: What Works, What Needs Improvement
HAI, a look from the US..., here.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Why We’re Updating the Government’s Merger Guidelines
J. Kanter, L. Kahn, WSJ (of all places), here.
"When markets are competitive and companies jostle to win business, everyone benefits. Consumers pay lower prices and get better service. Workers have more options to earn higher wages and get better working conditions. And we all benefit from the breakthrough innovations and diverse views that flourish when markets are open and the best ideas win.
More than a century ago, Congress set out to protect free and fair competition by passing antitrust laws. These laws prohibit mergers that may harm competition, while permitting those that don’t. As federal antitrust enforcers, we want our approach to be clear and predictable. Since 1968, our agencies have issued guidelines to explain how we assess whether mergers might hurt competition.
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have updated the merger guidelines to reflect an evolving economy several times, under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, Obama and Trump. We are continuing that tradition. Our proposed guidelines are faithful to the legal principles that have guided our enforcement efforts for generations. They recognize that firms can compete in a variety of ways and lay out the different ways that mergers may threaten competition.
The guidelines are written to be understood by businesses, consumers, entrepreneurs, workers and the broader public. We focused on three goals while drafting them.
First, as federal antitrust enforcers, we are bound by the antitrust laws as written by Congress and interpreted by the Supreme Court. The Clayton Act of 1914 prohibits any merger that may substantially reduce competition or tend to create a monopoly. Time and again since then—from expanding the Clayton Act to address a broader range of transactions to requiring that companies notify the government in advance of large mergers—Congress has closed loopholes and offered antitrust enforcers and private citizens more tools to stop anticompetitive mergers.
Recognizing Congress’s clear commands, more than a century of Supreme Court and appellate precedent makes clear that the antitrust laws protect the public from mergers that let dominant firms further control a market or create choke points in the economy. To ensure that our approach to merger review is faithful to the law, the proposed guidelines include—for the first time—legal citations to Supreme Court cases.
Second, enduring antitrust legal principles must be applied to today’s markets, reflecting how companies operate, compete and grow in the 21st century. To make sure we understand these changes, our proposed merger guidelines encompass the insights of modern analytical tools, taking into account market realities.
Third, we have written the draft guidelines with the broader public, not only antitrust experts, in mind. This makes it easier for businesses and individuals to understand the risk that a merger or acquisition may lead to an antitrust investigation and, where warranted, a lawsuit. But the proposed merger guidelines don’t create rights or responsibilities, nor are they substitutes for the law itself.
The proposed merger guidelines are the result of a public request for information issued in January 2022. We received more than 5,000 comments—from businesses, individuals, farmers, nurses, pharmacists, consumer advocates, worker organizations, antitrust practitioners, academics and trade associations. During four listening sessions, we heard about the effects of mergers and acquisitions on different sectors, which helped us understand how mergers can undermine open markets.
Our work isn’t done. We encourage the public to read the proposed merger guidelines and share its views at regulations.gov. The deadline to comment is Sept. 18. Our agencies will read and reflect on these comments before issuing final merger guidelines.
Congress tasked us with faithfully enforcing the antitrust laws to promote open, resilient markets. By updating the merger guidelines we hope to propel American ingenuity and ensure that the best ideas win.
Monday, July 24, 2023
Friday, July 21, 2023
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
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Ofcom.org.uk, here .
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G. Soros, here.
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LG Frankfurt am Main, 2-06 O 172/09 (verkündet am 13.05.2009). Lesenswertes aus der Begründung (meine Hervorhebungen): "Vorstellbare ...
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T. McSweeny, here.
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Los Angeles Times, here .
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Evonomics, here .
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The Borders of Economic Freedom, video here (from 33:00). Some personal highlights:
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OECD Digital Economy Papers, here .
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TheConversation, here .