Consumers get forgotten in all the politics. The best way to protect consumers is to protect an open, competitive market process, in which companies succeed or fail based not on their political connections or ideological correctness, but on how well they serve consumers.
Antitrust regulation’s problems are structural and incurable. The Competitive Enterprise Institutes advocates abolishing antitrust law, removing remaining government monopolies, and preventing the creation of new ones.
Featured Posts
The Dispatch
Antitrust Law Has Never Been Static
Last week a federal judge ruled that Meta was not an illegal monopoly, citing the changes in the social media landscape since the company bought…
Blog
FTC’s Strategic Plan needs better strategy, more plans for Hart-Scott-Rodino
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken a positive step by restoring the language “without unduly burdening legitimate business activity” to its mission statement, as…
Blog
HSR hibernation: Will the FTC PNO see its shadow during government shutdown?
It’s time for DC to find a real groundhog that can assist in determining if the government will shut down to replace the taxidermied…
Search Posts
News Release
Public Interest Group Opposes Technology Mandates, Joins Alliance For Digital Progress
Washington, D.C., January 23, 2003—Now that we’ve solidly entered the Digital Age, how should intellectual property best be protected, through the marketplace…
Op-Eds
Orbitz: Good For Airlines, Good For Travelers
Orbitz started selling airline tickets over the Internet on June 1, 2001. It is owned by five major carriers and supported to a…
Op-Eds
An Emerging Area Of Reform
As the Enron debacle regrettably spurred Congress to pass campaign finance reform, here’s hoping that Rupert Murdoch’s outrageous campaign against the merger of…
Op-Eds
Orbitz Foes Trying To Stifle Competition
The Department of Transportation has launched still another investigation into Chicago-based Orbitz, the online source of travel information and reservations started up last June by…
Op-Eds
Settlement Implications For Microsoft
The settlement that Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice presented to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly last Friday is good for the parties and represents…
Op-Eds
Government Goes Too Far On Microsoft Case
The 5 days since the release of the proposed settlement between Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice have seen a barrage…
Op-Eds
Government Pursues Microsoft Case It Has To Lose
Delong Op-Ed In TechCentralStation<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The Antitrust Division and the state attorneys…
News Release
Statements On The Justice Department’s Decision Not To Seek A Microsoft Breakup
James L. Gattuso, Vice President for Policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> “Today’s announcement…
News Release
Statements on the Microsoft Appeals Court Decision
James L. Gattuso<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Vice President for Policy Competitive Enterprise Institute …
Op-Eds
No Fool For Microsoft
Next February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will sit en banc for two days to hear the appeal of United States…
Op-Eds
Antitrust Threat to New Technologies: Pieler Op-Ed in Washington Times
Published in the Washington Times <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> October 16, 2000 Nothing…
Op-Eds
Put a Lid on Antitrust Zealots: Pieler Deseret News Op-Ed
Published in the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT) <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Distributed by Scripps Howard…
Op-Eds
Delay is Not a Four-Letter Word: Gattuso Op-Ed in Washington Times
Published in the Washington Times <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> October 2, 2000 …
Op-Eds
Supreme Court Gives Reality A Chance To Catch Up To Politics: DeLong Op-Ed
Distributed by Bridge News Service<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> September 29, 2000 Headline: By…
Study
Ignorance Is Us: Toys, Music, and Antitrust Regulations
Decades ago, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had a reputation for using the antitrust laws to defend mom-and-pop stores against the retailing…
Products
An Instant Message to AOL’s Competitors
From the August/September 2000 issue of CEI UpDate In late July, the Federal Communiations Commission held a hearing on issues…
News Release
CEI Statement on the Microsoft Case
Washington, DC, June 7, 2000 – Today’s Microsoft verdict represents an unjustified assault on the information revolution and the welfare of consumers, in favor…
Op-Eds
James Gattuso Reviews “Winners, Losers and Microsoft”
Artemus Ward once remarked that the problem with the world isn’t what we don’t know: “It’s the things we know that just ain’t…
Products
Thoughts on the Passing Scene
From the Editor Protesting Without a Clue It’s been two months since Washington, DC, was overrun with mobs…
Products
Judge Greene of the 21st Century?
The Justice Department’s plan was simple. Just break up the company into separate firms, based upon product lines. The parts with monopoly or bottleneck…
Citation
Government Wants Control of MS
News Release
Bust Up Microsoft? CEI Weighs In
Statement of James L. Gattuso, Vice President, and Clyde Wayne Crews, Director, Competition and Regulation Policy, April 28, 2000 “The extreme plan…
Op-Eds
Break up Microsoft? (Letter to the Editor)
To the Editor: Of course Paul Krugman is right, that, along with the loss of a uniform standard that allows many kinds of software to…
Op-Eds
Anti-Trust Law For Dummies
There's a secret to anti-trust law, but learning it isn't likely to reassure a high tech investor pondering the implications of the Microsoft verdict. The…
Op-Eds
The US versus Microsoft: Winners and Losers — Melugin Op-Ed in Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Let Consumers – Not the Government – Play Favorites…
News Release
Microsoft Stands Up for Consumers and Innovation
Washington, DC, April 3, 2000 – Consumers and the Competitive Enterprise Institute today praised Microsoft for refusing to sell out consumers’ interests by settling…
Products
California, Here They Come
Last month, I briefly visited the San Francisco Bay area. I’ve been in the region numerous times during the past few years, and each…
Study
Antitrust Not On Internet Time: Microsoft Remedies Discount Serious Competitive Threats
Many have come to believe that the technology industry requires strict governmental policing of allegedly anti-competitive behavior. But today’s software and Internet companies…
Products
AOL Time Warner? Not Big Enough for Tomorrow’s Internet
The America Online-Time Warner alliance is important not just for its size nor for the synergy it may create. It demonstrates in the real…
Study
Windows and the “Applications Barrier to Entry”: Fact or Fantasy?
View Full Document as PDF Very soon, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson is expected to issue his conclusions of law…
News Release
Public Interest Groups File deceptive Advertising Complaint Against Ben and Jerry’s
Citizens for the Integrity of Science and the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission today, accusing ice cream…
Products
In the Dark at Sun
Study
Microsoft Trial: The Heat is On
View Full Document as PDF This summer, the heat is on Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson even more than the rest of…
News Release
The Case Against The Case Against Microsoft: New Study Criticizes DOJ Case
Washington, DC, April 27, 1999 – Are Microsoft’s current business practices hurting consumers? A new study by Barry Fagin, Senior Fellow in Technology Policy…
Study
INTELligent Lessons from an Antitrust Blunder
View Full Document as PDF The FTC’s approval in March of a settlement with Intel closed an unfortunate chapter in American…
Op-Eds
The New Trustbusters
Joel Klein is a famous man. The head of the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice usually toils in anonymity, known only…
Study
A Defective Product: Consumer Groups’ Study of Microsoft In Need of Recall
View Full Document as PDF Consumer groups are supposed to be on the side of consumers. But three such groups – the…
Study
The Exxon-Mobil Merger: The Lessons of History
The proposed Exxon-Mobil merger, the largest merger ever undertaken, has set nervous tongues wagging. Much of the concern stems from the perceived lessons of…
Study
Wal-Mart: Santa or Satan?
View Full Document as PDF As Christmas shoppers flock to Wal-Mart, filling its parking lots to overflowing, should they feel they’ve…
Products
Predation’s Problems (Continued)
The case against predatory pricing is much stronger than argued by Donald Boudreaux in "The Problem with Predation" (CEI UpDate, September 1998). Boudreaux relies primarily…
Citation
Customers Granted Microsoft its 90 Percent Market Share
Study
Why Robert Bork Is Wrong:
Is there a clear legal precedent for the successful prosecution of Microsoft? Robert H. Bork seems to think so. He has stated emphatically…
Study
Computers and Competition: A Primer for Congress
With a new Microsoft hearing in the Senate on Thursday, legislators should keep in mind some crucial facts that argue against interference in…
Products
A Titanic Question of Public Policy
Ok, I’ll admit it. Last month I became perhaps the last human being in this section of the solar system to see the movie…
Study
Electric Avenues: Why “Open Access” Can’t Compete
Full Document Available in PDF The regulation of electricity markets…
Study
Destroying Competition in Order to Save It: Predation Rules and the Airline Industry
“We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” According to legend, this rationale was once given by the U.S. army to…
Op-Eds
Micro-managing Bill Gates
Full article available in pdf Republicans are known for praising markets and condemning overregulation of business. But oddly, they often conspicuously endorse…
Products
Crying Silicon Tears
If one set out to design vicious special- interest legislation to loot productive companies and distribute the spoils to lesser competitors, one could scarcely do…
Study
Bill, Bob, and Browsers: Why DOJ’s Case Against Microsoft is Flawed
While Microsoft has been pilloried by newspaper pundits, a trial court judge, and other alleged computer experts for not submitting to the federal government,…
Study
Network Effects: Does Luck or Talent Rule the High-Technology Market?
Does luck matter more than talent in the marketplace after all? Many of today’s calls for antitrust interference in the marketplace are rooted in a…
Staff & Scholars
Richard Morrison
Senior Fellow
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Capitalism and Free Enterprise
Iain Murray
Vice President for Strategy and Senior Fellow
- Banking and Finance
- Trade and International
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Ryan Young
Senior Economist
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform
Jessica Melugin
Director of the Center for Technology & Innovation
- Antitrust
- Innovation
- Media, Speech and Internet Freedoms
Alex Reinauer
Research Fellow
- Antitrust
- Innovation
- Tech and Telecom