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Full-Text Articles in Law
Toward A Better Competition Policy For The Media, Maurice E. Stucke, Allen P. Grunes
Toward A Better Competition Policy For The Media, Maurice E. Stucke, Allen P. Grunes
College of Law Faculty Scholarship
It is difficult to formulate meaningful competition policy when there is a fierce debate over the current competitiveness of the media industry. After addressing the importance of the marketplace of ideas in our democracy, our article examines the current state of the media industry, including the response of traditional media to audience declines, the growth of new media, the impact of media consolidation (including its impact on minority and women ownership), and the role of the Internet. In response to recent calls for liberalizing cross-ownership rules to protect traditional media, our article outlines why conventional antitrust policy is difficult to …
Toward A Better Competition Policy For The Media: The Challenge Of Developing Antitrust Policies That Support The Media Sector's Unique Role In Our Democracy, Maurice Stucke, Allen Grunes
Toward A Better Competition Policy For The Media: The Challenge Of Developing Antitrust Policies That Support The Media Sector's Unique Role In Our Democracy, Maurice Stucke, Allen Grunes
Scholarly Works
It is difficult to formulate meaningful competition policy when there is a fierce debate over the current competitiveness of the media industry. After addressing the importance of the marketplace of ideas in our democracy, our article examines the current state of the media industry, including the response of traditional media to audience declines, the growth of new media, the impact of media consolidation (including its impact on minority and women ownership), and the role of the Internet. In response to recent calls for liberalizing cross-ownership rules to protect traditional media, our article outlines why conventional antitrust policy is difficult to …
Does The Rule Of Reason Violate The Rule Of Law?, Maurice Stucke
Does The Rule Of Reason Violate The Rule Of Law?, Maurice Stucke
Scholarly Works
In the past few years, the Supreme Court has been more active in deciding antitrust issues. The Court's choice of legal standards affects future market behavior and the incentives for individuals and organizations to engage in productive activity. Despite its increased activity, the Court never assesses the deficiencies of its rule-of-reason standard under rule-of-law principles. This assessment is critical. This article analyzes the standard's significant deficiencies, and how these deficiencies adversely affect antitrust enforcement and competition policy generally. Perfect compliance with rule-of-law ideals, however, may be unobtainable and undesirable, so the Article recommends several improvements to reorient the rule of …
Concentrated Media Is Something We Can't Ignore: A Response To Speaker Pelosi, Maurice Stucke
Concentrated Media Is Something We Can't Ignore: A Response To Speaker Pelosi, Maurice Stucke
Scholarly Works
This essay briefly responds to a request that the U.S. Department of Justice should give San Francisco Bay Area newspapers more leeway under the federal antitrust laws to merge or consolidate their business operations. The essay agrees with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's concerns that a strong, free, and independent press is vital to our democracy and in informing our citizens, especially news organizations that devote resources to gathering news. As the essay explains, the antidote is not to weaken the antitrust laws to enable large media conglomerates to become even bigger. Instead, the health of the marketplace of ideas depends …
Should The Government Prosecute Monopolies?, Maurice Stucke
Should The Government Prosecute Monopolies?, Maurice Stucke
Scholarly Works
In the past few years, courts and the Department of Justice have cited approvingly the Court's dicta in Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko, LLP. This article analyzes why the economic thinking in Trinko is wrong, and how the Court ignores its precedent involving the Sherman Act's concerns of monopolies' political, social and ethical implications. It responds to the Court's claim that cartel behavior is easier to identify and remedy than monopolistic behavior and proposes an improvement to the Court's current rule of reason standard to reduce the risk of false positives, while enabling the antitrust …
New Antitrust Realism, Maurice Stucke
New Antitrust Realism, Maurice Stucke
Scholarly Works
In the midst of a failing economy, the incoming Obama administration will not likely adopt its predecessor's antitrust policies. So if change is afoot, what form should change take? This essay outlines the needed transformative change in today's competition policy. The essay proposes more empirical analysis by the U.S. competition authorities, outlines how behavioral economics can assist in this new antitrust realism, and concludes in explaining why such antitrust realism is needed.