What should be of antitrust concern is how Apple has used its iOS monopoly power in anticompetitive ways that go far beyond what Microsoft was lambasted for doing to Netscape in the now-ancient 1990s.
It’s Time To Prosecute Apple For Monopolization
Category Archives: Start-ups
Competition Regulation & Innovation: A Tale of Three Speeches
Three recent speeches by Obama Administration officials provide key insights into the rather conflicted view of current policymakers on the appropriate role of competition regulation in today’s age of digital-fueled disruption.
Legal Disruptions Redux
New legal service technologies are premised on the prediction that significant change in the legal industry will be driven by consumers and small businesses, not by lawyers and law firms. It’s a hard notion with which to disagree.
Competition Advocacy Matters—Here’s Why and How
There’s a famous old political adage — “where you stand is where sit” (also known as Miles’ Law) — meaning basically that government policy positions are dictated more by agency imperative and institutional memory than objective consideration of the public interest. A related concept is “regulatory capture,” where administrative agencies over time become defenders of the status quo and pursue objectives more for regulated firms […]
The FTC Weighs In On Tesla’s Travails
Three high-level FTC staffers are backing Tesla in its ongoing fight to sell electric cars directly to consumers.
Is Bazaarvoice Bizarre?
By winning the US v. Bazaarvoice trial without showing that post-closing competitive effects in the nascent market it chose to attack had not, in fact, been harmful to consumers, the Justice Department’s success may have done more damage to antitrust law — and the appropriate role for government predictions of market development — than they ever intended.
Want A Tesla? You Can’t Buy One Here
Tesla is going to have to slog through a long and extremely expensive 50-state battle against archaic dealer-protection laws to implement its business model. Wish them luck.
A Penny Saved
With the Square-Starbucks joint venture, we are now on the verge of an inflection point for commercial payments. How many more years or decades before currency itself becomes extinct?
Twitter And the FTC: Myopia One Year Later
One year ago, the Wall Street Journal and other business publications reported that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had launched an investigation into “Twitter and the way it deals with the companies building applications and services for its platform.” Let’s hope the FTC’s 2011 Twitter investigation is mothballed in 2012.
The VC Industry is At an Inflection Point
Many are speculating that 2009 represents a fundamental turning point for the venture capital industry.