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Full-Text Articles in Law
Nascent Competitors, C. Scott Hemphill, Tim Wu
Nascent Competitors, C. Scott Hemphill, Tim Wu
Faculty Scholarship
A nascent competitor is a firm whose prospective innovation represents a serious threat to an incumbent. Protecting such competition is a critical mission for antitrust law, given the outsized role of unproven outsiders as innovators and the uniquely potent threat they often pose to powerful entrenched firms. In this Article, we identify nascent competition as a distinct analytical category and outline a program of antitrust enforcement to protect it. We make the case for enforcement even where the ultimate competitive significance of the target is uncertain, and explain why a contrary view is mistaken as a matter of policy and …
Antitrust And Inequality: The Problem Of Super-Firms, Shi-Ling Hsu
Antitrust And Inequality: The Problem Of Super-Firms, Shi-Ling Hsu
Scholarly Publications
Increasing concern about economic inequality has coincided with an unsettling ascendancy of some large, technologically integrated “super-firms,” which have grabbed large market shares in multiple markets, and cast doubt upon the future viability of a wide range of businesses, many of which have been important local and regional employers. It is thus unsurprising that these two trends have knocked together in public discourse, and that antitrust law been proposed as one way of helping to remedy economic inequality. This essay notes that antitrust law is generally a poor fit for reducing economic inequality, but one aspect is worthy of note: …
The Strategic Use Of Public And Private Litigation In Antitrust As Business Strategy, D. Daniel Sokol
The Strategic Use Of Public And Private Litigation In Antitrust As Business Strategy, D. Daniel Sokol
UF Law Faculty Publications
This Article claims that there may be a subset of cases in which private rights of action may work with public rights as an effective strategy for a firm to raise costs against rival dominant firms. A competitor firm may bring its own case (which is costly) and/or have government bring a case on its behalf (which is less costly). Alternatively, if the competitor firm has sufficient financial resources, it can pursue an approach that employs both strategies simultaneously. This situation of public and private misuse of antitrust may not happen often. As the Article will explore, it is not …
As Antitrust Case Ends, Microsoft Is Victorious In Defeat, Norman Hawker, Robert H. Lande
As Antitrust Case Ends, Microsoft Is Victorious In Defeat, Norman Hawker, Robert H. Lande
All Faculty Scholarship
As the final judgment in the celebrated Microsoft case ends, this piece very briefly assesses the impact of its remedy. When evaluated in terms of its most important goals, the remedy has proven to be a failure. Microsoft's monopoly power in the PC operating systems market is now as great as it was when the case was brought in 1998 or the remedy was ordered in 2002. The article also very briefly discusses the implications of this remedy for Google and AT&T.
The Intel And Microsoft Settlements, Robert H. Lande
The Intel And Microsoft Settlements, Robert H. Lande
All Faculty Scholarship
This article briefly compares and contrasts the recent U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust settlement with Intel, and the antitrust cases brought against Microsoft. The article praises the FTC's settlement with Intel, and predicts that history will judge it very favorably compared to the settlement by the U.S. Department of Justice of its antitrust case against Microsoft.
The Microsoft Chronicles, Rudolph J.R. Peritz
The Microsoft Chronicles, Rudolph J.R. Peritz
Articles & Chapters
No abstract provided.
Remedies, Antitrust Law, And Microsoft: Comment On Shapiro, Keith N. Hylton
Remedies, Antitrust Law, And Microsoft: Comment On Shapiro, Keith N. Hylton
Faculty Scholarship
The subject of remedies is a relatively under-theorized area of antitrust law, and Professor Shapiro has done the antitrust community a great favor by offering some innovative and useful theoretical insights on the design of antitrust remedies. He applies his theoretical insights to the Microsoft III case to reach the conclusion that the remedies adopted were inadequate to restore competition in the market for software platforms. In this review, I will offer additional theoretical insights on remedies and explain my reasons for rejecting his conclusions on Microsoft III.
Pangloss Responds, Daniel A. Crane
Pangloss Responds, Daniel A. Crane
Articles
I am afraid that William Shieber and I are speaking past each other. I agree wholeheartedly with his assertion that anyone who believes that political appointees do not exert a considerable influence over the antitrust agencies is naïve. However, Technocracy and Antitrust does not advance the Panglossian view that the antitrust agencies are apolitical, if by that we mean that robotic machines devoid of human perspective or ideological commitment churn out scientifically predetermined antitrust results.
Measuring Compliance With Compulsory Licensing Remedies In The American Microsoft Case, William H. Page, Seldon J. Childers
Measuring Compliance With Compulsory Licensing Remedies In The American Microsoft Case, William H. Page, Seldon J. Childers
UF Law Faculty Publications
Section III.E of the final judgments in the American Microsoft case requires Microsoft to make available to software developers certain communications protocols that Windows client operating systems use to interoperate with Microsoft's server operating systems. This provision has been by far the most difficult and costly to implement, primarily because of questions about the quality of Microsoft's documentation of the protocols. The plaintiffs' technical experts, in testing the documentation, have found numerous issues, which they have asked Microsoft to resolve. Because of accumulation of unresolved issues, the parties agreed in 2006 to extend Section III.E for up to five more …
Regulating Interoperability: Lessons From At&T, Microsoft, And Beyond, Philip J. Weiser
Regulating Interoperability: Lessons From At&T, Microsoft, And Beyond, Philip J. Weiser
Publications
Antitrust law confronted the challenges of regulating interoperability between platforms and applications in both the AT&T and Microsoft cases, but it has yet to mine the series of lessons that can inform how to address this challenge going forward. With the Microsoft consent decree still in place, it may too soon to render a final judgment on the remedy adopted in that case as well as to evaluate more generally whether antitrust law is up to the task of developing the institutional strategies - be it the use of technical committees or reliance on standard setting bodies - for addressing …
Bargaining In The Shadow Of The European Microsoft Decision: The Microsoft-Samba Protocol License, William H. Page, Seldon J. Childers
Bargaining In The Shadow Of The European Microsoft Decision: The Microsoft-Samba Protocol License, William H. Page, Seldon J. Childers
UF Law Faculty Publications
The Microsoft-Samba agreement is by far the most important tangible outcome of the European Microsoft case. The EC’s other remedial order in the case, which required Microsoft to create a version of Windows without Windows Media Player, was an embarrassing failure. The Samba agreement, however, is significant because it requires Microsoft to provide, to its most important rival in the server market, detailed documentation of its communications protocols, under terms that allow use of the information in open source development and distribution. There is good reason to believe that Samba will be able to use the information to compete more …
Workable Antitrust Remedies, William H. Page
Workable Antitrust Remedies, William H. Page
UF Law Faculty Publications
Just over twenty years ago, Frank Easterbrook proposed renaming the Chicago School of antitrust analysis the “Workable Antitrust Policy School,” in recognition of its skepticism about “the ability of courts to make things better even with the best data.” Richard Epstein's brief study of consent decrees is in this tradition of circumspection in antitrust matters. Epstein proposes to analyze “the role consent decrees play in the antitrust law” by examining “the factual and legal disputes that gave rise” to various decrees. He finds many decrees of the past century misguided in their ambition, but concludes, on the evidence of the …
A Comparison Between U.S. And E.U. Antitrust Treatment Of Tying Claims Against Microsoft: When Should The Bundling Of Computer Software Be Permitted?, James F. Ponsoldt, Christopher D. David
A Comparison Between U.S. And E.U. Antitrust Treatment Of Tying Claims Against Microsoft: When Should The Bundling Of Computer Software Be Permitted?, James F. Ponsoldt, Christopher D. David
Scholarly Works
This article will analyze the recent U.S. and E.U. judicial approaches to tying charges which stem from software bundling. Part II reviews U.S. tying jurisprudence both generally and as applied to software bundling. Part III outlines the D.C. Circuit's approach to Microsoft's Windows/Internet Explorer bundle. Part IV briefly covers tying jurisprudence in the European Union. Part V describes the European Commission's (“E.C.”) analysis of Microsoft's Window/Windows Media Player bundle. By comparing the two approaches, Part VI shows that neither approach is ideal: although the U.S. approach offers too little guidance to software manufacturers seeking to avoid liability and unduly discounts …
No Wonder They Dislike Us: Us Admonishes Europe For Protecting Itself From Microsoft's Predation, Albert A. Foer, Robert H. Lande
No Wonder They Dislike Us: Us Admonishes Europe For Protecting Itself From Microsoft's Predation, Albert A. Foer, Robert H. Lande
All Faculty Scholarship
This short article applauds the European Commission for holding that Microsoft violated European competition laws, and admonishes the U.S. for criticizing the Europeans for protecting themselves from Microsoft's anticompetitive activity.
Ub Viewpoint – Aol/Microsoft Settlement Could Harm Consumers, Robert H. Lande
Ub Viewpoint – Aol/Microsoft Settlement Could Harm Consumers, Robert H. Lande
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The European Union’S Microsoft Case: No Time For Jingoism, Albert A. Foer, Robert H. Lande
The European Union’S Microsoft Case: No Time For Jingoism, Albert A. Foer, Robert H. Lande
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Why Are We So Reluctant To "Execute" Microsoft?, Robert H. Lande
Why Are We So Reluctant To "Execute" Microsoft?, Robert H. Lande
All Faculty Scholarship
On June 28, 2001, the D.C. Court of Appeals held that Microsoft has violated the antitrust laws repeatedly, relentlessly, and over a multi-year period. The court ruled eight separate times that Microsoft engaged in conduct that illegally maintained its monopoly in PC operating systems. Despite these strongly worded conclusions concerning Microsoft’s liability, the court was extremely cautious when it considered whether to break up the company. It held that divestiture was a “radical” remedy that should be imposed with “great caution.”
The Perfect Caper?: Private Damages And The Microsoft Case, Robert H. Lande, James Langenfeld
The Perfect Caper?: Private Damages And The Microsoft Case, Robert H. Lande, James Langenfeld
All Faculty Scholarship
As readers of crime novels know, there are many definitions of the perfect caper. Under most, the perpetrator gets to keep its ill-gotten gains and goes unpunished. Even if the perpetrator is arrested and brought to trial, he or she still typically escapes punishment completely due to a variety of unusual circumstances. This is essentially what Professors John E. Lopatka and William H. Page are arguing about Microsoft's actions. They assert that even though Microsoft has violated the antitrust laws, it will not be made to pay for its anticompetitive conduct, at least not by private plaintiffs.
After Microsoft Wins, Robert H. Lande