Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons^™

Beyond Data Deletion: Addressing Anticompetitive Conduct In The Era Of Machine Learning, Vaibhav Srikaran

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Like a hamster wheel, the “virtuous cycle” of data collection, collation, and computation spins to create algorithms to assist modern business operations. Companies accumulate data by the terabyte with hopes that their army of data scientists can make sense of all the noise using machine learning. Potential profits encourage companies to seek out data—sometimes unlawfully through collusion. The use of unlawfully collected data in algorithms harms competition. Such data provides a competitive edge that is not accessible to all marketplace participants. Antitrust laws can police unlawful data sharing, but existing remedies are not effective for restoring competition.

Merely deleting ill-gotten …

Antitrust In The Health Care Sector, Doug Ross

Chapters in Books

This chapter is an opportunity for students to apply the concepts addressed elsewhere in the book, but at a deeper level and in the context of a sector that accounts for a very large share of antitrust activity on the part of government enforcers and private plaintiffs. The topics chosen illustrate some of the nuances in applying antitrust law in the real world and show how the application of antitrust principles has evolved over time. The chapter also raises important policy questions regarding how to apply antitrust to a sector that is rife with market failures, including what tools and …

From Lightbulbs To #Sheinhauls: Considerations For Planned Obsolescence Regulation In The Modern Era, Nicole Cullen

Washington Law Review

“Planned obsolescence,” broadly defined as conduct by manufacturers to shorten product lifespans and spur consumption, is characteristic of the American economy. Such conduct largely manifests in widely accepted competitive strategies that require consumer participation: The periodic release of products or emergence of a trend, for example. In some instances, planned obsolescence conduct reaches beyond the accepted competitive practices, desired by consumers, to conduct that clearly harms consumers with no countervailing rationale. Such practices effectively cease product function prematurely, either through product failure or poor performance and inefficient repair costs. While this conduct largely evades legal capture, it intersects with many …

The Helicopter State: Misuse Of Parens Patriae Unconstitutionally Precludes Individual And Class Claims, Gabrielle J. Hanna

Washington Law Review

The doctrine of parens patriae allows state attorneys general to represent state citizens in aggregate litigation suits that are, in many ways, similar to class actions and mass-tort actions. Its origins, however, reflect a more modest scope. Parens patriae began as a doctrine allowing the British king to protect those without the ability to protect themselves, including wards and mentally disabled individuals. The rapid expansion of parens patriae standing in the United States may be partly to blame for the relative absence of limiting requirements or even well-developed case law governing parens patriae suits. On the one hand, class actions …

Teamwork Or Collusion? Changing Antitrust Law To Permit Corporate Action On Climate Change, Dailey C. Koga

Washington Law Review

In an era of apprehension about climate change and the future of our planet, private companies are increasingly recognizing their role in increasing sustainability and lowering carbon emissions. To address this growing concern, some industry leaders are taking unilateral action to implement sustainable practices, but other companies have made agreements to fight emissions together. However, the Sherman Antitrust Act forbids agreements in restraint of trade. Further, antitrust law traditionally has refused to recognize ethical or moral justifications as legitimate reasons to permit anticompetitive agreements. As society’s concern for the planet grows and elected leaders move slower than needed to address …

All Bets Are Off: Preempting Major League Baseball’S Monopoly On Sports Betting Data, Beatrice Lucas

Washington Law Review

Major League Baseball is in the process of collectivizing data used in sports betting. This could be exempt from antitrust scrutiny if the conduct falls within the “business of baseball.” Such an exemption raises the question of whether collecting official league data is sufficiently attenuated from the “business of baseball” to be subject to antitrust law, and if so, whether MLB violates the Sherman Act by excluding competitors from the league data market. This Comment makes a two-fold argument. First, it argues that the “business of baseball” should be constrained to cover activities directly linked to putting on baseball games. …

Ride-Hailing Drivers As Autonomous Independent Contractors: Let Them Bargain!, Ronald C. Brown

Washington International Law Journal

“Autonomous” workers include most gig-platform drivers, like those working globally for Uber and Lyft, who are usually classified as independent contractors and are ineligible for labor protections and benefits. The “new economy” and its business model, with its fissurization and increased use of contingent and outsourced workers hired as independent contractors, provide employers flexibility and lower costs by shifting labor costs to the workers. Many of these workers operate more as employees rather than genuine independent contractors or self-employed entrepreneurs, causing lost employee labor benefits and costing the government billions of lost tax dollars. Legal attempts continue to classify these …

Externalities And The Common Owner, Madison Condon

Washington Law Review

Due to the embrace of modern portfolio theory, most of the stock market is controlled by institutional investors holding broadly diversified economy-mirroring portfolios. Recent scholarship has revealed the anti-competitive incentives that arise when a firm’s largest shareholders own similarly sized stakes in the firm’s industry competitors. This Article expands the consideration of the effects of common ownership from the industry level to the market portfolio level and argues that diversified investors should rationally be motivated to internalize intra-portfolio negative externalities. This portfolio perspective can explain the increasing climate change related activism of institutional investors, who have applied coordinated shareholder power …

Confidentiality In Patent Dispute Resolution: Antitrust Implications, Mark R. Patterson

Washington Law Review

Information is crucial to the functioning of the patent system, as it is for other markets. Nevertheless, patent licensing terms are often subject to confidentiality agreements. On the one hand, this is not surprising: sellers and buyers do not normally publicize the details of their transactions. On the other hand, explicit confidentiality agreements are not common in other markets, and they may be particularly problematic for patents. Several United States Supreme Court cases have condemned agreements that suppress market information, and those cases could be applied to confidentiality agreements in the patent context. Of course, confidentiality may sometimes be pro-competitive, …

The Evolution Of Antimonopoly Proceedings In Japan: Observations Of Third Party Standing To Sue In The Case Involving Jasrac, Yutaka Ishida

Washington International Law Journal

Japan’s Antimonopoly Proceeding has repeatedly changed throughout the 21st century. Originally enacted as the Preliminary Review Procedure, the administrative process evolved into the Complaint Review Procedure from 2005 to 2013, before becoming the Direct Appeal to District Court Procedure in effect now. The proceedings allow the Japan Fair Trade Commission ("JFTC") to regulate the market and shield it from monopolistic behavior. The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers ("JASRAC") dominates the music copyright management service provider industry in Japan. The company's fee collection methods led the JFTC to issue it a cease and desist order under the …

Why A "Large And Unjustified" Payment Threshold Is Not Consistent With Actavis, Michael A. Carrier

Washington Law Review

This Article offers three reasons why a requirement that a plaintiff demonstrate a large and unjustified payment before reaching the rule of reason is not consistent with Actavis. First, nearly all of the Court’s discussion of large and unjustified payments occurred in contexts unrelated to the antitrust analysis that future courts were to apply. Second, the Court instructed lower courts to apply the rule of reason, not a new framework with a threshold it never mentioned. And third, such a threshold is inconsistent with the Court’s (1) allowance of shortcuts for plaintiffs to show anticompetitive effects and market power …

Navigating Through The Fog Of Vertical Merger Law: A Guide To Counselling Hospital-Physician Consolidation Under The Clayton Act, Thomas L. Greaney, Douglas Ross

Washington Law Review

Lawyers assessing legality under the antitrust laws of hospital acquisitions of physician practices face a quandary. The case law is sparse, federal enforcement guidance outdated, and academic input conflicting. Applying these muddled standards in the rapidlyevolving health care sector only magnifies the uncertainty. While most transactions will be competitively neutral or beneficial, rapidly evolving market conditions causing integration between hospitals and physicians present opportunities for consolidations that may harm consumer interests. Indeed, given the highly concentrated structure of many hospital markets in the nation, preemptive acquisitions of physician practices may be a tempting strategy for some to undermine competition. This …

Why A "Large And Unjustified" Payment Threshold Is Not Consistent With Actavis, Michael A. Carrier

Washington Law Review

This Article offers three reasons why a requirement that a plaintiff demonstrate a large and unjustified payment before reaching the rule of reason is not consistent with Actavis. First, nearly all of the Court’s discussion of large and unjustified payments occurred in contexts unrelated to the antitrust analysis that future courts were to apply. Second, the Court instructed lower courts to apply the rule of reason, not a new framework with a threshold it never mentioned. And third, such a threshold is inconsistent with the Court’s (1) allowance of shortcuts for plaintiffs to show anticompetitive effects and market power …

Throwing The Flag On Pay-For-Play: The O'Bannon Ruling And The Future Of Paid Student-Athletes, Joseph Davison

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

A group of former and current football and men’s basketball players, led by ex-UCLA basketball star Edward O’Bannon, brought an antitrust suit against the NCAA in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Their goal was to obtain an injunction ending the NCAA’s rules preventing players from being paid for the use of their names, images, or likenesses. Relying in large part on a 1984 Supreme Court case, NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, the NCAA claimed that there are specific procompetitive justifications for the restrictions, namely, amateurism and competitive balance. The …

Standardizing Warhol: Antitrust Liability For Denying The Authenticity Of Artwork, Gareth S. Lacy

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Art authentication boards are powerful; their determinations of authenticity can render artwork worthless or add millions of dollars to market value. In the past, boards that denied authenticity of artwork typically risked tort liability for disparagement, defamation, or fraud. In Simon-Whelan v. Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., however, an art collector alleged monopolization and market restraint after an authentication board denied the authenticity of his Andy Warhol painting by stamping “DENIED” on the back of it. The case is the first antitrust lawsuit against an authentication board to survive the defendant’s motion to dismiss. The decision …

China's New Anti-Monopoly Law: A Perspective From The United States, Thomas R. Howell, Alan Wm. Wolff, Rachel Howe, Diane Oh

Washington International Law Journal

In August 2007, China enacted an Anti-Monopoly Law, becoming one of roughly ninety nations to establish a comprehensive regulatory regime governing competition. Since the advent of China’s economic reform program beginning three decades ago, China has been moving to integrate its economy within the global trading system. This article provides an overview of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”) emphasizing key areas of significant apparent divergence from U.S. antitrust policy. The article addresses the evolution of anti-monopoly policy in China and the United States, observing that, where differences exist, China’s AML frequently reflects principles similar to those once embedded in U.S. antitrust …

The Korea Fair Trade Commission's Decision On Microsoft's Tying Practice: The Second-Best Remedy For Harmed Competitors, Sejin Kim

Washington International Law Journal

In the spring of 2006, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (“KFTC”) imposed a fine of approximately thirty-one million dollars and a cease-and-desist order against Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”) for bundling its Windows Media Service (“WMS”), Windows Media Player (“WMP”), and Windows Messenger (“WM”) into its personal computer operating system “Windows.” Specifically, the KFTC ordered Microsoft to completely separate WMS from Windows and provide two different versions of Windows: one bundled with WMP and WM and the other without these two programs. It is also noteworthy that the KFTC required Microsoft to include the “Media/Messenger Centre” in the bundled version to help …

The Japanese Antimonopoly Act And Nonassertion Of Patents Provisions: Microsoft's Conflict With The Japan Fair Trade Commission, Courtney E. Mertes

Washington International Law Journal

In recent decades, Japan has strengthened its antimonopoly regulations. Now, a country that historically favored internal collusion continues to develop a stringent antimonopoly regime that encourages competition. The Japan Fair Trade Commission ("JFTC") enforces the Japanese Act Concerning the Prohibition of Private Monopoly and the Maintenance of Fair Trade ("Antimonopoly Act") and its provisions dealing with unfair trade practices. The JFTC takes a strong stance in enforcement of the Act and violators follow its recommendations. The JFTC has charged Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft") with abuse of a dominant bargaining position and unfair trade practices in its use of restrictive provisions, such …

Not Child's Play: Compliance With The Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, Kristin Bryant

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

The FTC regulates how Web site operators collect personal information from children based on the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has developed voluntary guidelines that businesses can use to assist them in achieving compliance with COPPA. Businesses that comply with the guidelines are deemed to be in compliance with COPPA and thus shielded from FTC sanctions. Costs of compliance may be high, so some Internet business models that target children may no longer be viable. Any business that does not target children but …

The Role Of Positive Comity In U.S. Antitrust Enforcement Against Japanese Firms: A Mixed Review, Matthew Cooper

Washington International Law Journal

On October 7, 1999, the United States and Japan signed an antitrust cooperation agreement. The agreement contains provisions for notification and consultation, coordination and cooperation, and positive comity. These provisions address Japanese sovereignty concerns arising from the unilateral application of U.S. antitrust laws to the conduct of Japanese firms that occurs outside the territorial borders of the United States. The agreement also addresses U.S. perceptions that Japanese markets are closed to American businesses because it offers tools, other than unilateral antitrust enforcement, to open Japanese markets to American businesses. However, the positive comity provision does not proscribe unilateral antitrust enforcement. …

"To Say The Greatest Matters In The Simplest Way": A "First Economic Injury" Rule As A Restatement Of Directness Standing Requirements In Federal Antitrust Law, Christopher B. Durbin

Washington Law Review

In addition to traditional constitutional standing analysis, federal antitrust law examines a potential plaintiff's claims under a series of specialized standing requirements. One of these requirements is that the plaintiff's injury be a "direct" result of the antitrust violator's misconduct. This requirement has been prominent in recent tobacco litigation where union health care trust funds sued the major tobacco companies in antitrust to recover the costs of treating nicotine-addicted beneficiaries. Federal courts generally denied standing to the trust funds for several reasons, one of which was the trust funds' failure to satisfy the directness requirements. This Comment analyzes the tests …

Antitrust In Japan: The Original Intent, Harry First

Washington International Law Journal

This Article examines the "original intent" of those involved in drafting Japan's Antimonopoly Act, passed in 1947. Japanese sources generally assume this legislation to be pure American invention, a foreign transplant that the Japanese did not understand and that was improperly imposed on a country in which antitrust was, and continues to be, irrelevant. Drawing on original Occupation documents, however, this Article shows that negotiators from Japan's government understood perfectly well what the legislation was about. More than understanding, the government of Japan in fact drafted the statute that was finally enacted, and its provisions reflect the success Japan's negotiators …

The Antitrust Duty To Deal And Intellectual Property Rights, James C. Burling, William F. Lee, Anita K. Krug

Articles

This Article discusses how courts have addressed so-called ‘"duty-to-deal" antitrust claims involving intellectual property, and what they should do in those circumstances to ensure appropriate deference to the competition goals of intellectual property doctrine.

Part II discusses duty-to-deal principles in the general case, where intellectual property rights are not at issue, noting that hard and fast rules have yet to emerge.

Part III discusses the approaches courts have taken in the intellectual property context and contends that, although many courts have conducted their analyses with a view to the objectives of patent law, at least two have not, with potentially …

A Proposed Antitrust Approach To The Conduct Of Retailers, Dealers, And Other Resellers, Thomas A. Piraino Jr.

Washington Law Review

The market power of retailers, resellers, and dealers has increased substantially in recent years as the result of innovations in distribution such as the superstores, mass merchandisers, and warehouse clubs. Consequently, the balance of power in many industries has begun to shift from the supplier to the resale level. Although courts have well-developed means of analyzing the competitive conduct of suppliers and consumers, they have been unable to decide how to treat resellers' competitive conduct. This Article proposes the adoption of a traditional antitrust approach, the "ancillary restraints analysis," to the conduct of resellers. Under this approach, courts would recognize …

Unilateral Refusals To Deal In Intellectual Property After Image Techical Services, Inc. V. Eastman Kodak Co., Brian F. Ladenburg

Washington Law Review

While the Federal Patent and Copyright Acts give patent and copyright holders limited exclusive rights in intellectual property, the Sherman Act prohibits combinations or conspiracies that restrain trade and monopolization. Although firms possessing intellectual property generally exercise their statutory exclusionary rights without running afoul of the antitrust laws, conduct may plausibly be authorized by intellectual property law but forbidden by antitrust. In construing the two statutory schemes, federal courts have generally held that conduct authorized by the intellectual property laws, in the absence of some further inculpatory action, cannot form the basis for antitrust liability. The Ninth Circuit departed from …

"Speculative" Antitrust Damages, Roger D. Blair, William H. Page

Washington Law Review

The most important antitrust penalties are treble damage awards based on the individual harms that violations cause. For these penalties to function as an economically rational deterrent, there must be a practical mechanism for proving individual harm, and for distinguishing such harm from "speculation." In this article, the authors present an account of that mechanism. First, they argue that the law's measure of antitrust damages is based on a standard of net individual harm that is qualified in certain cases by a principle of net social harm. Net harm is measured by the difference between the plaintiff's actual condition (given …

Regulations On Bid Rigging In Japan, The United States And Europe, Naoaki Okatani

Washington International Law Journal

This article provides a comparative perspective on bid rigging in Japan, the United States and Europe. It emphasizes the differences in both institutional structure as well as policy and business culture in the three jurisdictions, particularly in terms of antitrust and criminal law enforcement. It notes the greater tolerance of bid rigging in Japan in the case of construction contracts for public works.

Competition And Trade Policy: Antitrust Enforcement: Do Differences Matter?, John O. Haley

Washington International Law Journal

This article deals with the question of differences in competition policy enforcement regimes in Japan, Europe and the United States. In answer to the question "Do differences matter?", the author concludes that they matter less than conventional wisdom suggests at least in terms of "fairness" and effectiveness. The article challenges the widely held views that Japan's competition rules are ineffectively enforced and that U.S. antitrust enforcement, especially treble damage actions, have had an unfair impact on foreign firms. The article concludes with recommendations for greater cooperation between trade regulation and antitrust enforcement authority in the United States and among competition …

Introduction. Competition And Trade Policy: Europe, Japan And The United States, John O. Haley

Washington International Law Journal

With the successful conclusion of the Uruguay Round of negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the focus of international trade concern has shifted from elimination of formal, governmentally imposed trade barriers to complex, and often contradictory, interrelationships among national and regional competition and trade policies. The promise of future negotiations under the aegis of the new World Trade Organization on competition (antitrust) policy as a trade issue thus brings us full circle. The GATT was itself the product of extensive planning within the United States Department of State for the postwar international economy. An effective international competition …

A Comparison Of U.S.-Japan Antitrust Law: Looking At The International Harmonization Of Competition Law, Hiroshi Iyori

Washington International Law Journal

This article focuses on the legislative history of the Japanese Antimonopoly Law and a comparison between the substantive provisions of the Japanese law and its U.S. origins. It begins with a historical overview of the fundamental differences between the economies of Japan and the U.S., as well as Japan through the postwar period and the contrasting contexts in which competition laws were enacted in each country. It offers a brief outline of the historical development of Japanese competition law, from the enactment of the Antimonopoly Law through amendments and defining judicial interpretations. The article then focuses on coverage, sanctions, and …