Study
Zombie Antitrust: Is Robinson-Patman a Dead Law Walking?
Introduction Lawrence O’Brien, well-known confidant and aide to the Kennedys at the height of their 1960s power, entitled his political autobiography No Final Victories.
Study
Stop Making Sense: Reviving the Robinson-Patman Act and the Economics of Intermediate Price Discrimination
I. Introduction Early in the 20th century, a new model for retail sales arose: chain stores. One chain, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P), became America’s largest retailer…
News Release
FTC should return to bipartisan consensus deemphasizing Robinson-Patman enforcement in competition policy
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under two consecutive administrations is reviving enforcement of a 1930s law that was dormant for decades after a bipartisan…
Rethinking Anti-Trust
Achieving Change at the Federal Trade Commission
CEI’s Tim Muris and Howard Beales joined the Rethinking Anti-Trust podcast to discuss achieving change at the FTC:…
News Release
Radical change at Biden FTC leads to busted norms, new agenda facing skeptical judiciary: CEI paper
In July 2021, President Biden signed an executive order on competition policy, calling the previous 40 years of bipartisan agreement on the issue “an…
Study
Achieving Change at the Federal Trade Commission
Introduction “Never mistake activity for achievement.” – John Wooden Although small in budget, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sometimes had an outsized impact. Created to fulfill…
The Wall Street Journal
Lina Khan’s Failed FTC Experiment
President Biden has embraced modern progressivism and ditched his liberal economic-policy inheritance. Nowhere is this more striking than in competition policy—the past 40 years…
Politico
Three names Biden is circling for Fed Vice Chair
ON BLAST — Former FTC Chair Timothy Muris and Bruce Kobayashi, who served as director of the commission’s bureau of economics during the Trump administration,…
Study
Turning Back the Clock: Structural Presumptions in Merger Analyses and Revised Merger Guidelines
Introduction Since 1950, when Congress closed a loophole in Section 7 of the Clayton Act,[1] the federal antitrust agencies have investigated actively, and prosecuted diligently, mergers the…
Barrons
A Key FTC Case Goes Down the Regulatory Rabbit Hole
As imagined in Lewis Carroll’s classic, having gone down the rabbit hole, a bewildered Alice learns from the Cheshire Cat that, if you don’t…
News Release
Former FTC Policymakers Find FTC Complaint Against Illumina-GRAIL Merger Lacking in New CEI Paper
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) published a new paper today by former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Timothy J. Muris and former…
Study
Screening Out Innovation
Executive Summary This report addresses the appropriate antitrust standards for vertical mergers. It first provides an overview, and then analyzes a specific application to the Federal…