In this issue:
The focus of much of this issue concerns digital media and communications, but first we introduce CPI’s new publishing technology with two audio interviews with leading competition authorities. Then we look at the interplay among online communications platforms, consumer privacy, and consumer protection. We examine what import a price of zero has for antitrust, ask “Is the Web Dead,” provide an analytical history of search engines, and take a retrospective look at Baidu. On a different track, we investigate interchange fees, how to analyze mergers in innovation markets, survey aftermarkets, and answer “Is antitrust enforcement irrelevant?” The Classic is the Jeff Rohlfs’ 1974 article that modernized network effects analysis and, as Richard Schmalensee describes in his introduction, provided an prescient model of Facebook.
-
Letter From the Editor
Letter From the Editor-Spring 2011
Fitting with this adventure into new media the substantive focus of much of this issue concerns digital media and communications. David Evans (CPI)
-
Interviews with Antitrust Leaders
Conversations with Jon Leibowitz and Joaquin Almunia
Competition authority leaders are assuming increasing responsibilities and wearing many hats”not only as regulators but also as advocates of markets.
-
Media and Communications
The Intersection of Consumer Protection and Competition in the New World of Privacy
How should the FTC balance the consumer protection concerns arising in the context of privacy with competition issues? Julie Brill (FTC)
Ofcom’s Approach and Priorities for Consumer Protection & Empowerment
Regulatory action designed to improve consumer outcomes does so by seeking to enhance the ability of the market to deliver good outcomes for consumers. Andrea Coscelli & Claudio Pollack (OfCom)
Applications Want to be Free: Privacy Against Information
It may not pay for consumers to understand the costs and benefits of reduced information use. Michael Hammock (Middle Tenn. State Univ.) & Paul Rubin (Emory Univ.)
Journalism, Competition, and the Digital Transition
Antitrust exemptions are rarely good for consumer welfare and are simply not necessary given the innovative business models that are emerging to facilitate digital transition in the news industry. Matthew Bye & Oliver Bethell (Google)
-
Antitrust Analysis for the Web Economy
The Antitrust Economics of Free
Businesses often offer a product for free because it increases the overall profits they can earn from selling the free product and a companion product to either the same customer or different customers. David Evans (Global Economics Group)
Are Closed Systems an Antitrust Problem?
Closed systems should not be put in an antitrust suspect class. Hanno Kaiser (Latham & Watkins)
Emergence of Global Search Engines: Trends in History and Competition
Given the dynamic nature of the web search engine market, it is clear that a player’s dominance depends on its innovation activity relative to others. Manish Agarwal & David Round (Univ. of South Australia)
-
Selected Essays on Antitrust
Payment Card Regulation and the Use of Economic Analysis in Antitrust
Regarding regulated fees, some broadly contemplated regulatory methodologies bear only limited resemblance with economically sound precepts. Jean Tirole (Univ. of Toulouse)
Innovation Market Theory and Practice: An Analysis and Proposal for Reform
Intervention in mergers of innovation companies may not only have been not beneficial, it may have dampened innovation by reducing the potential reward while ignoring the risks that any innovator is being asked to run. Kent Bernard (Fordham Law)
Practical Aspects of Aftermarkets in European Competition Law
Genuine cases of dominance, and therefore of possible abuse of dominance, are not likely to arise in those aftermarkets either in EU or in U.S. law unless the company in question is dominant in the primary market. John Temple Lang (Cleary Gottlieb, Trinity College)
-
From the Authorities
Antitrust: A Good Deal for All in Times of Globalization and Recession
The number one priority of citizens is to get their fair share of the market economy that they are asked to support. Bruno Lasserre (French Autorité de la concurrence)
-
Case Study
Using a Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut: Why China’s Anti-Monopoly Law was Inapproriate for Renren v. Baidu
Consumer protection law rather than antitrust law would have been a better tool for tackling abuses like those alleged by Renren in this case. Angela Huyue Zhang (Cleary Gottlieb)
-
The Classics
Jeffrey Rohlfs 1974 Model of Facebook: An Introduction and Reprint
Rohlfs presents a model that seems better suited to analysis of new Internet-based businesses that rely on network effects, like Facebook and YouTube. Richard Schmalensee (MIT)
