Big Tech politics?

07/17/19 • 42 min

If you spend any time reading the US press you will have realised that there’s recently been a potentially dramatic series of developments when it comes to Big Tech antitrust. Investigations, congressional hearings and even break ups are all on the menu.

In this episode our guest is Matt Stoller, Fellow at the Open Markets Institute, a US think-tank on a mission to address threats posed to democracy from monopoly power.

Matt’s daily diet is the politics and policy of antitrust and he guides us through the cast of characters and scripts of recent events, while at the same time sharing his perspective on why we should look at Big Tech issues through an ideological, not just a methodological lens.

Matt’s book, Goliath: The 100 Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy, will be released in October.

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode our guest is Matt Stoller, Fellow at the Open Markets Institute, a US think-tank on a mission to address threats posed to democracy from monopoly power.

Matt’s book, Goliath: The 100 Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy, will be released in October.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Previous Episode

Blockchain antitrust – old wine in new bottles?

Blockchain is a technology that both bedazzles and bewilders! For its hard core advocates, it is seen as the answer to the problem of concentrated power on the internet. For others, its workings are as impenetrable as its implications.

In this episode we are joined by Dr Thibault Schrepel, Assistant Professor at the Utrecht University School of Law and Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Berkman Center, who has made researching and teaching blockchain antitrust his specialty. We canvas the risks of anti-competitive conduct on blockchain and the challenges it is likely to pose for authorities in enforcing the competition rules.

For those who are fairly new to the topic, you may find it useful to listen first to episodes 23 and 24 in which we laid the groundwork for this episode with an explanation of what this technology involves and whether it might pose a threat to Big Tech.

You can also find Thibault on his innovative website, Concurrentialiste, or follow him on Twitter @LeConcurrential, and I highly recommend his recent blockchain papers:

Is Blockchain the death of Antitrust Law? The Blockchain Antitrust Paradox, 2018

Collusion by Blockchain and Smart Contracts, 2019

Antitrust Without Romance, 2019

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Next Episode

More on digital mergers?

Between them GAFA have made more than 400 acquisitions over just the last 10 years. With the benefit of hindsight, many of these acquisitions have been portrayed as strategic or killer acquisitions, designed to snuff out potential or emergent competitive threats.

Recognising this, there is a growing view that competition authorities must be more prepared to protect competitive market structures and to do so may require changes in the approach taken to error cost and counterfactual assessments in merger review.

In this episode our guest is Dr Paolo Buccirossi, Founder and Director of the economics consultancy, Lear. Lear has undertaken a first-of-its kind report for the UK Competition and Markets Authority involving ex post assessment of a series of mergers in the digital sector that were cleared. We discuss the report’s key findings and consequent recommendations for future merger practice.

The report also reviews the theories of harm typically examined by competition authorities in such cases and considers their consistency with the burgeoning economic literature in this area. While we did not canvas these parts of the report in the episode, they are definitely recommended reading.

You can find the Lear report here.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.