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The Federal Trade Commission has lost its Biden-era chair, the extraordinary Lina Khan, who did more in four years than all her predecessors did in the preceding forty years, combined. The new chair is Republican Andrew Ferguson, whose first day on the job was a bloodbath, in which he killed off multiple, significant actions aimed at producing real, material benefits from Americans who are being absolutely screwed by corporations…
Cory Doctorow
"Amazon's Antitrust Paradox" was a stinging rebuke to Bork and his theories, using Amazon's documented behavior to show that after Amazon used its monopoly power to lower prices and drive rivals out of the market, it subsequently raised prices. And, contrary to Bork's theories, those new, high prices didn't conjure up new rivals who would enter the market with lower prices again, eager to steal Amazon's customers away. Instead, Amazon's demonstrated willingness to cross-subsidize divisions gigantic losses to destroy any competitor with below-cost pricing created a "kill zone" of businesses adjacent to the giant's core enterprise that no one dared enter
Who Broke the Internet? Part III
When Lina Khan took over the FTC and Jonathan Kanter helmed the Antitrust Division, they brought back the rule of law itself. Instead of using guidance from theoretical economic models involving price theory, they focused on statutory text, Congressional intent, and precedent. Khan resurrected unenforced laws, such as the Clayton Act prohibitions against exclusive deals and tying, as well as price discrimination and unfair methods of competition. Kanter restored criminal monopolization law, and bans on interlocking directorates. Both wrote new merger guidelines that were organized around case law, instead of economic theory.
Monopoly Round-Up: Lina Khan Is Back
Khan's role in the Mamdani administration will be familiar to those of us who cheered her on at the Federal Trade Commission: she is metabolizing the rules that define the actions that mayors are allowed to take, figuring out how to use those actions to improve the lives of working New Yorkers, and making a plan to combine the former with the latter to make a real difference
Zorhan Mamdani’s world-class photocopier-kicker
Yet under Chair Khan’s leadership, the Junk Fees Rule went from proposal to final rule in under three years. And junk fees were hardly the only corporate abuse the agency confronted head-on during Khan’s tenure. The agency also finalized rules to end non-compete clauses, fake reviews, subscription traps, health privacy abuses, car dealership scams, impersonation schemes, and “Made in the USA” fraud. These initiatives demonstrate that agencies can deliver big wins when led by someone with the vision and focus to challenge economic exploitation using every tool.
Trump Talks About Prices. Lina Khan is Lowering Them
Regulators pass rules to stop hotels, banks, and Ticketmaster from hiding what they charge. It's just one part of the war on junk fees, which will continue despite the end of the Biden administration.
So I figured the day after Christmas would be a nice time to discuss one of the final things that the Federal Trade Commission under Lina Khan did, which is to restrict these extremely annoying hidden fees in the ticketing and short-term lodging industries by mandating that sellers disclose the full price upfront. Such a change has been a long time coming. Last October, the FTC put out a proposal to formally declare these fees unlawful as part of their mandate to ban unfair and deceptive practices. The commission found that such hidden charges cost consumers 53 million wasted hours searching for the actual price.
Wall Street loved Mark Zuckerberg’s plans for 2023 to be a “year of efficiency” Analysts didn’t hold great expectations for Meta’s fourth quarter earnings, largely due to a downturn in online advertising and fierce competition from rivals like TikTok. What was most unexpected, however, was how happy Wall Street was with Mark Zuckerberg’s plans.Read more... https://qz.com/meta-earnings-2023-q4-share-buyback-layoffs-1850063732
The ongoing big tech antitrust cases to watch in 2023 It is poised to be a big year for antitrust legislation, as governments around the world attempt to rein in the influence of the so-called “big five” tech giants — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. Read more... https://qz.com/antitrust-cases-big-tech-2023-guide-1849995493
