Category: Antitrust

@TBarrabi: @RepJerryNadler’s Big Tech antitrust bill nears reintroduction on Capitol Hill — but could be thwarted by key Democrats @SenSchumer @RepZoeLofgren @RepLouCorrea

A major antitrust bill to rein in Big Tech is poised to be reintroduced in Congress – but insiders fret that key Democrats with cozy ties to Silicon Valley could undermine their own party’s agenda.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is leading a push to resurrect the American Innovation and Competition Online Act. The bill would block Big Tech firms from “self-preferencing” their own services — for example Google promoting its shopping tool in search results while demoting rival services.

Reintroduction of AICOA is a “priority” for Nadler, who is set to sponsor the legislation and wants to get it done by the end of June, a congressional source close to the situation told The Post. The Senate version of the bill was reintroduced last year and co-sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

Read the post on NY Post

@JohnTamny: DOJ Ankle Biters Attack Live Nation For Seeing What No One Saw

It’s always interesting when antitrust types bemoan what they imagine is a “monopoly.” Applied to Live Nation, what became the latter was founded in 1996. That the DOJ had no interest in it then is a statement of the obvious. The Justice Department only discovers what it deems “monopoly,” but that most sentient beings cheer as wildly successful, well after the fact.

Applied to Live Nation, assuming it’s “just so entrenched” as the ankle biters at the DOJ presume, that’s logically because the marketplace in which it operates, and thrives, was plainly in need of what Live Nation became. Better yet, those atop Live Nation did what entrepreneurs do whereby they led the marketplace to what Live Nation has become, among other things a concert promoter, artist manager, venue owner, ticket seller, and reseller.

In other words, Live Nation’s success in the here and now is a function of its executives having successfully anticipated a future of music that was wildly opaque, it having subsequently completed intrepid acquisitions based on its speculation about an uncertain future, only to be proven not just right, but resoundingly so.

Read the post on Real Clear Markets