Antitrust and Big Tech: Does New Technology Call for New Rules?
Recently, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced a bill that would overhaul the past forty-five years of antitrust law by rewriting legal standards, changing guidelines for mergers, and expanding the government’s civil penalty authority. Additionally, the House Judiciary Committee conducted its own investigation and released a report on competition in the digital market.
Is Big Tech Too Big? A Conversation on Tech, Antitrust, and Whether Its Time to Break Up the Giants
The Cornell Federalist Society and the Adam Smith Society host Ashley Baker, Director of Public Policy at the Committee for Justice, and Joseph Malchow, founder of Publir and venture investor. Ashley and Joe discuss legislative proposals and weigh in on current debates over the proper scope and purpose of federal antitrust law.
Explainer: Senator Klobuchar's Antitrust Bill
How would the bill adjust the definition of "exclusionary conduct"? What would it mean for the government's ability to seek civil fines for antitrust violations? And how does the bill fit into the larger conversation about antitrust law in Washington?
Shifting the Burden of Proof in Competition Law
The House Committee on the Judiciary recently released a report on the state of competition in the digital marketplace that was the result of a 16 month long investigation. The report describes itself as being “an attack on how America has approached antitrust for the past 40 years.” One of the recommendations in the report inverting the evidentiary burden of proof and shifting it away from the plaintiff to the defendant, particularly in civil mergers challenges.
This episode lays out the current framework used in U.S. courts for meeting the burden of proof in competition law cases, the role of presumptions in antitrust litigation, and the implications of shifting the burden to the defendant.
Antitrust Populism and the Conservative Movement
The Federalist Society's Pennsylvania Student Chapter and the Regulatory Transparency Project co-sponsored an event on "Antitrust Populism and the Conservative Movement” with Ashley Baker and Professor Herbert Hovenkamp.