Antitrust is a unique issue in modern American politics. In an era of deep political polarization, there is a bipartisan consensus that Washington should act to rein in big tech’s perceived power. While conservatives argue big tech has a liberal bias and are censoring their speech online, liberals contend that big tech has amassed too […]
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DOJ Should Not Follow in Europe’s Footsteps
Throughout 2020, the federal government and the U.S. Congress have been investigating and suing big tech companies for violating outdated antitrust statutes that date back to the 1890s and erroneously presume big is bad. First, the House Judiciary Committee released its long-awaited report calling for the structural separation of big tech companies, and then the […]
The Jury is Out: DOJ’s Filing Against Google Unlikely to Enhance Consumer Welfare
On Friday, October 30, 2020, lawyers from both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Google will meet to start proceedings in the DOJ’s antitrust suit against the tech giant. In their filing with attorney’s general from eleven traditionally Republican states, the DOJ alleges Google entered into a series of short and long-term exclusionary agreements that harmed […]
The DOJ Antitrust Case Against Google: A Recap
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has finally released its long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging the company routinely engaged in “anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend” its monopoly status at the expense of consumer welfare and competition. The anti-trust suit follows the Trump administration’s desire to rein in big tech companies that it argues have […]
DOJ’s Appeal Belongs on HissyFit.Rant
DOJ submitted an appeal of the AT&T-Time Warner merger approved by Judge Leon of the US District Court for the DC Circuit. The submission asks the appeals court to reverse Judge Leon on the basis that he could not have understood DOJ’s arguments, otherwise he would not have approved the merger. DOJ claims the intellectual high […]
FORBES: The CLOUD Act Is Up For Vote and What It Means for Consumers
Can the U.S. government issue a legal warrant to require a U.S. company to retrieve overseas digital communications from its foreign customers? As consumer information increasingly resides in the cloud, overseas or domestically, and in various electronic forms, establishing what access the government should have to private communications and how the government should work with its […]
Forbes: AT&T Merger — Let Consumers Choose
Many observers welcome AT&T’s proposed merger. A few do not, including the Department of Justice (DOJ). This Forbes commentary tells why the DOJ should just let consumers choose among market rivals and content.
ACI joins Groups in Filing an Amicus Brief with the SCOTUS
A few years ago, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has tried to force Microsoft to turn over emails of a purported drug dealer whose emails are stored on a Microsoft server in Ireland. Essentially, the U.S. government issued a warrant for the emails of an Irish citizen, stored on facilities in Ireland and operated by […]
Supreme Court to Review Case Involving Privacy of Cloud Data
It’s time for Congress to Act. Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) called on Microsoft to turn over the cloud data belonging to a suspected criminal. On the surface, such a request may seem routine, but the criminal was not a U.S. citizen, did not live in the U.S., and the cloud […]
DOJ’s Twisted Logic: Rigging Auctions Promotes Competition
It is with total disbelief that I write about a recent letter from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the rules for the upcoming “competitive” Spectrum auction. In the letter, the DOJ – the United States’ chief antitrust and law enforcement agency – writes in support of […]