News Release
Repealing Section 230 Would Be Devastating to Free Expression Online
The Trump administration is pressing for a repeal of the tech industry’s liability-limiting statute, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, as a part of…
News Release
Chairman Ajit Pai’s FCC Advanced the Cause of a Freer, Fairer, More Industrious Nation
Economic and social resilience relies upon modern, evolving communications systems. Since beginning service as a Commissioner in 2012, the actions of Ajit Pai demonstrate confidence in…
Blog
On Online Speech, Sasse Stands Alone
There was an almost total lack of skepticism of expanding government regulation of online content moderation at yesterday’s Senate hearing with the CEOs of…
Blog
Biden Tech Policy Preview
Joe Biden has been declared the president-elect (I’m pretty sure). Here’s what a Biden administration and a (presumably) divided Congress might mean for tech issues.
News Release
EU’s Inconsistent and Protectionist Approach to Antitrust in the Digital Age Stifles Innovation and Harms Consumers
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a new paper today examining the European Union’s approach to enforcing antitrust policy against large and innovative technology companies.
Reason
The Republican Antitrust Suit Against Google Is a Progressive Dream
Reason cites CEI Senior Fellow Jessica Melugin on antitrust suit. “It will be a heavy lift for the DOJ to show real consumer harm,” said Jessica…
Financial Times
Google Antitrust Case Shows the Flaws in Competition Regulation
The US Department of Justice’s filing of an antitrust lawsuit against Google on Tuesday reflects growing concern in Washington about the power wielded by big technology…
News Release
DOJ Suit Against Google Seeks to Expand Antitrust Standard Beyond Consumer Harm
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit today alleging Google has broken antitrust laws with its search function and digital advertising practices. Associate Director of CEI’s…
National Review
Don’t Change Antitrust Law to Undermine Tech Companies and Consumers
A new House Judiciary Committee report on competition in the technology industry starts from the premise that everything Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google…
News Release
House Report on Tech and Antitrust Ignores the Consumer Harm Standard
Today the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law released a report advocating changing antitrust laws and using them to break up…
News Release
Laws to Limit Section 230 Protections Would Lead to More Government Oversight of Speech
Large technology companies were the focus of multiple proceedings in Congress today, including a markup of a bill to change Section 230 of the Communications…
Study
Repeal #NeverNeeded Antitrust Laws that Hinder COVID-19 Response
Big technology firms have been invaluable in easing the burden of quarantine for millions of consumers[1] and businesses.[2] Unfortunately, the Department of Justice, the Federal…
News Release
Antitrust Investigations against Tech Threaten to Hamper Pandemic Response and Recovery
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a new report today arguing that large technology companies are making invaluable contributions to our quality of life…
Products
Repeal #NeverNeeded Antitrust Laws that Hinder COVID-19 Response
View Full Document as PDF Big technology firms have been invaluable in easing the burden of quarantine for millions of consumers…
Blog
SAFE DATA Act a Risk for Consumers
Republican members of the Senate Commerce Committee recently introduced the SAFE DATA Act. While the bill includes much needed federal preemption of state privacy laws,…
Bloomberg Law
Fortnite Creator Epic’s Battle With Tech Giants Could Harm Consumers
If you have middle school-aged children or older, chances are you’ve heard of Fortnite, an online multi-player game, created by Epic Games Inc., that allows users…
News Release
Antitrust Claims Against Google Ad Platform Fail to Meet Consumer Harm Standard
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing later today claiming to look into antitrust concerns related to Google’s online advertising platform. Associate…
Blog
Don’t Panic Over Ad Tech
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold an antitrust hearing on September 15 to examine Google’s 90 percent market share in online advertising. Senators who would…
News Release
New CEI Report Finds Bipartisan Embrace of Harmful, Interventionist Tech Policies
Neither major political party holds a monopoly on bad ideas when it comes to federal policy towards the technology sector, according to a…
Study
Terrible Tech 2.0
View Full Document as PDF Executive Summary If you are looking for bipartisanship in Washington, D.C., the technology policy sector may be your…
Blog
No Market Failure, No New Regulations
The U.S. Senate is about to consider federally regulating transportation network companies (TNCs) for the first time. But proof of market failure should always be…
Blog
INFORM Me When It’s Over
Among other depressing developments, 2020 saw the introduction of the Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act (INFORM) in both houses…
National Review
House Antitrust Hearing Discusses Everything but Antitrust Law
In Wednesday’s antitrust hearing with the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, questions from liberal members of Congress laid the groundwork for expanding the…
Blog
Tech Antitrust Hearing as Political Theater
Large, innovative tech companies have been invaluable during the COVID-19 crisis, helping to ease the burden of millions of Americans and businesses under quarantine. But…
News Release
House Hearing with Big Tech Companies Unwarranted on Antitrust Grounds
The Subcommittee on Antitrust, Administrative and Commercial Law of the House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing Wednesday noon on ““Online Platforms and Market Power,…
Blog
Antitrust Tech Hearing Unlikely to Prove Useful
Monday’s upcoming House Antitrust Subcommittee hearing featuring CEOs from Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple may turn out to have very little to do with antitrust.
The Washington Examiner
Congress is Dragging Jeff Bezos to the Hill to Explain a Routine Business Strategy
Alongside his fellow Big Tech CEOs, Jeff Bezos will appear before the House Judiciary Committee next Monday to testify about Amazon Marketplace’s business practices with…
News Release
Repeal #NeverNeeded Regulations Hindering Use of Tech at Home During Deadly Pandemic
The COVID-19 crisis has severely tested individuals and businesses, making access to technologies and services that enabled large swaths of the American economy to move…
Study
Repeal of #NeverNeeded Regulations Can Help People Stay Home and Safe During the COVID-19 Crisis
As individuals and businesses continue to address the COVID-19 health crisis, access to technologies and services that have enabled large swaths of the economy to…
News Release
Congress Should Take Net Neutrality Regulations Off the Table Permanently to Aid Economic Recovery
Proponents of net neutrality regulations promised dire consequences for Internet user experience if the Obama-era rules were repealed, but time has shown their predictions to…
Study
Take Net Neutrality Regulations off the Table for Good
Congress should eliminate the looming threat of net neutrality regulations to Internet service providers (ISPs). Regulation deters investment and the coronavirus health crisis has revealed…
Blog
Is Apple a Bad Antitrust Apple?
The European Union announced last week that it is pursuing two antitrust probes against the tech giant. EU authorities are investigating whether Apple violated European…
Blog
Calls to “Reform” Section 230 of Communications Decency Act Are Misguided—and Thankfully Unlikely to Succeed
This week, four U.S. Senators asked the FCC to “take a fresh look at Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act .” Real changes…
Washington Examiner
William Barr Wading Into Dangerous Territory with Possible Support for Anti-Tech Regulation
Last month, Attorney General William Barr said, “valid questions have been raised on whether Section 230’s broad immunity is still necessary, at least in its current…
The American Conservative
Embracing The Idea Of Unregulated Fake News Everywhere
Recently a controversy arose over a CBS News shot of a supposed line for coronavirus testing that turned out to include staged medical staff posing…
Blog
Executive Order on Social Media Threatens Property Rights and Free Speech
Today’s Executive Order on Section 230 liability protections for online platforms violates the First Amendment and property rights of social media companies, contradicts the most…
News Release
Executive Order Compelling Private, Online Platforms to Host Speech is Unconstitutional
President Trump today announced his intention to sign an Executive Order aimed at compelling companies that own private online platforms to host speech against their…
News Release
Attempts by the Right and Left to use Government to Regulate Speech on Social Media are Unconstitutional
President Trump recently called for the Administration to create a panel to investigate claims of bias against conservatives on the part of social media companies.
Blog
Presidential Panel on Social Media Bias Misfires
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration is considering forming a panel to investigate charges of discrimination against right-leaning users and…
Washington Examiner
Why is there bipartisan support for limiting online liberty?
Facebook recently announced the first 20 members of its independent Oversight Board on content moderation. Many criticized the political bent of the majority of the…
Blog
Antitrust Investigation of Amazon Won’t Benefit Consumers
Launching another antitrust investigation into Amazon won’t benefit consumers. The U.S. antitrust law standard is consumer harm. To stretch antitrust investigations to include data, privacy,…
Blog
Market Dynamics Will Force Zoom to Reform Faster and More effectively than Government Regulation
The videoconferencing service Zoom recently ran into some privacy concerns with leaked videos and hacked online meetings. Reaction has been swift and flawed from many…
Blog
On Balance, We’re All Better Off With Big Tech and Big Telecom During a Crisis
Thanks to the novel Coronavirus, the U.S. economy has come to an unprecedented halt and the country’s death toll stands at more than 20,000. Amid…
Blog
Antitrust Policy #NeverNeeded and Dangerous in a Crisis
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission will now allow some collaboration between companies to address the corona virus health threat. They also warned a…
Blog
Regulatory Restraint, Full Throttle
Members of Congress pursuing compromise or bipartisan net neutrality legislation should think twice about regulating away certain practices as a priori harmful. Among the greatest…
Blog
Need for More Wireless Spectrum Will Persist beyond COVID-19 Crisis with Introduction of 5G Technology
Last week, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T and US Cellular all asked the FCC for temporary access to additional spectrum to accommodate the recent increased demand for…
Blog
Federal Court Rightly Affirms Online Platforms’ First Amendment Rights
This week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, “despite YouTube’s ubiquity and its role as a publicfacing platform, it remains a private forum,…
Blog
Amazon Documentary Shows How Consumers Benefit
PBS’s Frontline aired its documentary, “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos,” last night. While the tone of the piece was markedly suspicious,…
Multichannel News
T-Mobile-Sprint Decision Draws Crowd
Multichannel News cites associate director Jessica Melugin on the T-Mobile-Sprint Decision: “This is good news for U.S. consumers who benefit from economies of scale…
News Release
CEI Applauds Court Decision to Approve Sprint-T-Mobile Merger
CEI applauds today’s decision by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero to approve the $26 billion merger of T-Mobile US Inc. with Sprint Corp. over the…
News Release
DC Court of Appeals Declines to Reconsider So-Called Net Neutrality
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia declined to reconsider a decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to…
The Heartland Institute
Understanding an Internet Sales Tax
The Heartland Institute cites Associate Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on internet sales taxes: Jessica Melugin of the…
Blog
Proposed iHeart Media Acquisition Threatened by Antitrust Regulation
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Liberty Media Corp, which already owns Sirius XM satellite radio, including its Pandora streaming service, and 33% of…
Blog
California’s New Privacy Law Will Harm Consumers and Innovation
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect January 1, 2020. The law requires companies of a certain size that collect information on customers…
Blog
Department of Justice Wrong to Block Sabre Acquisition of Farelogix
On January 27th, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) will attempt to block travel technology company Sabre Corporation from purchasing communications protocol innovator Farelogix, Inc. This will be the…
Blog
Government of Singapore Demonstrates Real Online Censorship
Singapore’s recent policing of online content provides an instructive example of the difference between private curating of material by platform owners and dangerous curtailing of…
Blog
Twitter’s Ban on Political Ads Has No First Amendment Implications
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey announced that the social media platform will ban all political advertising. This comes on the heels of Facebook’s recent announcement…
Reason
5G Is the Future
Reason cites Associate Director for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on 5G: But without a T-Mobile/Sprint merger, wireless customers might have been left…
News Release
CEI Calls on FCC to Appeal Third Circuit Ruling on Media Ownership to the Supreme Court
News Release
CEI Calls on FCC to Appeal Third Circuit Ruling on Media Ownership to the Supreme Court
This week, the Third Circuit struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s statutorily-obligated revisions to media ownership rules in a 2-1 decision. CEI urges FCC to…
News Release
Tech Antitrust Probes Good Politics for State AGs, but Terrible for Consumers
According to reports, a group of state attorneys general are planning to launch antitrust probes into Facebook and Alphabet’s Google division. New York AG Leticia…
News Release
Facebook Report on Bias Overlooks Looming Threats of Speech Regulation
Facebook today released an interim report by former U.S. Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) examining claims by some conservatives of political bias on the part of…
Blog
States Making Predictable Grab for Revenue via Online Sales Taxes
Fallout from the 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair Supreme Court decision, which allowed remote sales tax collection from online purchases, has begun and The Wall Street Journal editorialized…
Yahoo Finance
DoJ Okays T-Mobile/Sprint Merger: Winners & Losers
Yahoo Finance cites Associate Director for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. Dish Network aims to reach out 70% of…
Blog
Department of Justice Creates Frankenstein Imitation of Market Competition
The Department of Justice’s long-awaited merger approval for T-Mobile and Sprint is good news for consumers on balance, but the conditions required for the agency’s blessing are…
U.S. News & World Report
The Latest: T-Mobile Expects to Close Sprint Deal in 2019
U.S. News & World Report cites Associate Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. On the…
News Release
Government Green Light for T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Good News for Consumers
CEI applauds the Department of Justice’s approval of the proposed merger between the nation’s third and fourth largest mobile telecommunications providers, T-Mobile US Inc and…
News Release
Trump DOJ Wrong to Persecute Big Tech With Antitrust: CEI statement
On news that the Trump Justice Department is launching an antitrust review of big technology firms like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple, a CEI technology policy expert warned…
Fortune
Why Recent Antitrust Regulation Isn’t Really About Consumer Protection
In its second hearing today, the House Judiciary Committee continued its investigation into the tech antitrust issue. This latest iteration of “hipster antitrust” is nothing more…
Blog
State Officials, Department of Justice Should Green-Light Sprint-T-Mobile Merger
Yesterday’s filing by ten state attorneys general to block the proposed merger of wireless carriers T-Mobile and Sprint is the latest threat to the innovations…
TechNewsWorld
T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Teeters Between FCC Approval, DOJ Rejection
TechNewsWorld cites Associate Director Jessica Melugin on competition between wireless carriers. “No one can be sure of the ‘right’ number of competitors in…
Fox News
Conservatives Who Want Facebook, Other Social Media Regulated Should Think Twice
There are growing calls from both sides of the political aisle for government regulation of speech on social media platforms, but letting government dictate what…
Blog
Liberate Local TV Programming from Price Controls
The Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing on the state of the media marketplace on June 5 and the debate around reauthorizing The…
News Release
CEI Applauds FCC Support for Sprint-T-Mobile Merger
Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Chairman Ajit Pai will circulate a draft order urging fellow commissioners vote to approve the merger between Sprint…
Blog
Federal Communications Commission Wisely Steps out of Way of Sprint/T-Mobile Merger
Today the Federal Communications Commission signaled it will likely vote to approve the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile.
Blog
Don’t Let Facebook Team up with Big Government to Censor the Web
Facebook’s expulsion of several controversial figures from its platform last week is an example of a company managing its own private property to what it…
News Release
Facebook’s Calls for Government Regulation of Speech Provide Important Context for Recent Actions
Facebook announced yesterday it was banning several individuals under a policy it has against “dangerous individuals and organizations.” Individuals banned include: InfoWars founder Alex Jones,…
News Release
House Bill Seeks to Resurrect Unnecessary, Heavy-Handed Regulation of the Internet
The House of Representatives passed a bill today aimed at reinstating heavy-handed regulation of the Internet put into place under the Obama Administration. The bill…
News Release
Washington Bureaucrats Should Stay Out of T-Mobile-Sprint Merger
Today, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law will hold a hearing on the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. The…
News Release
Plan to Break Up Tech Companies “Bad News for Consumers, Innovation”
According to reports, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is set to announce a new plan to use antitrust regulations to “break up” large and innovative technology…
News Release
Congress Should Stay Out of Broadband Regulation and “Let the Free Market Keep Working”
Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will roll out a new piece of legislation aimed at reversing the FCC’s decision to repeal so-called “net neutrality” rules…
Politico
Takeaways from the DOJ’s Merger Defeat
Politico cited Associate Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation Jessica Melugin on the AT&T and Time Warner merger. The Justice Department’s headline-grabbing…
News Release
Court Rejects Antitrust Lawsuit Against AT&T/TimeWarner Deal: CEI Comment
Today, a federal court rejected an antitrust challenge to a merger deal between AT&T and TimeWarner. CEI technology policy expert Jessica Melugin praised the ruling…
Blog
Net Neutrality Regulation Still a Bad Idea
The debate at today’s House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing was largely between making blocking, throttling, and fast lanes illegal and going further to…
News Release
Real World Outcomes Show Vacuity of Arguments Supporting so-called “Net Neutrality”
On Friday, supporters of so-called “net neutrality” regulations will take their case to the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC,…
Blog
Agenda for the 116th Congress: Tech and Telecom
As technology and telecommunications evolve, new challenges inevitably arise for policy makers. New mandates or prohibitions should be avoided in all but the most exceptional…
Blog
New Cable Franchise Rules to Benefit Consumers
In September of last year, the Federal Communications Commission issued a further notice of proposed rulemaking clarifying how the amount that cities are allowed to…
Blog
End of the Road for Net Neutrality Comeback Attempt
The end of the 115th Congress meant the end of using the Congressional Review Act to void the Federal Communication Commission’s repeal of Obama-era net…
Blog
Year in Review 2018: Internet Sales Tax
On June 21, 2018, in South Dakota v. Wayfair, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed fifty years of precedent by allowing states to collect sales taxes…
Blog
Best Books of 2018: Life after Google
Are Tucker Carlson’s predictions of Google taking over the future keeping you up at night? Sooth yourself with the creative destruction described in “Life after…
Blog
Last-Minute Delay in CVS-Aetna Deal Could Threaten Consumer Benefits
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon surprised many on Monday when he announced he may halt the integration of CVS pharmacy’s assets with the nation’s…
Study
Antitrust FAQ
1. What is antitrust? Today’s body of antitrust laws is the culmination of over one hundred years of unclear objectives, contradictory interpretations, and controversial court decisions.
Inside Sources
Cities Should Stop Slowing Down America’s 5G Revolution
The Federal Communications Commission recently approved a proposal to speed up deployment for the next generation of wireless service, known as 5G. The plan puts states and…
Blog
Discard Static Market Analysis, Let Sprint and T-Mobile Merge
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has been making a convincing case for a swift and condition-free approval from regulators of the proposed Sprint and T-Mobile…
The Daily Caller
Opinion: Why the Government Should Stand Aside and Allow T-Mobile and Sprint to Merge
On Sept. 11, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it needed more time to review the pending merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. Meanwhile, the Department…
News Release
CEI: Dept. of Justice is Right to Challenge Legality of California “Net Neutrality” Law
The Department of Justice recently filed a lawsuit against the state of California, claiming the state’s newly-signed law regarding “net neutrality” seeks to regulate interstate…
Blog
U.S. Justice Department Challenges California Net Neutrality Rules
News Release
CEI Commends FCC Vote to Streamline 5G Buildout – America’s Next Generation of Wireless Technology
Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to streamline the buildout of 5G infrastructure, America’s next generation of wireless technology. The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Jessica Melugin,…
News Release
CEI Applauds Sensenbrenner Bill to Stem Fallout from Supreme Court Decision on Internet Sales Tax
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced the Online Sales Simplicity and Small Business Relief Act of 2018 today, aimed at protecting taxpayers and online entrepreneurs from…
The Sun
Online Firms Like Amazon Face Higher Taxes to Help Struggling High Streets, Philip Hammond Hints, but Will it Put Up Prices?
The Sun cited Associate Director of the Center for Technology & Innovation Jessica Melugin on Internet Sales Tax. “But experts have warned that…