Ownership

CenturyLink Settles Second Level 3 Deal Term Violation

CenturyLink, since renamed Lumen, has agreed to pay the Department of Justice (DOJ) $275,000 to settle the department's complaint stemming from the company's violation of the terms of its acquisition of Level 3 Communications. According to the DOJ, it is the second such violation by CenturyLink. The DOJ will file a civil contempt claim in DC federal court and at the same time ask the court to accept the settlement, which resolves the claim. “CenturyLink is a repeat offender,” said acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers of the Antitrust Division.

Democracy's Essential Infrastructure

The sad fact is that America’s news and information ecosystem is eating away at our democracy.  And we are not paying attention, partly because neither traditional nor new media are living up to their responsibility to cover the issue. They’re not about to discipline themselves. (And how laughable it is to see expensive ads from Facebook saying that it supports updating internet regulations when, of course, they will fight to the death anything resembling real public interest oversight.) The larger point here is that successful self-government depends upon a well-informed citizenry.

Lookalike tech policies in China, Europe and the US

Nations and regions with wildly differing political systems and cultures have converged on a shared set of responses to the power of big tech firms: rein in the companies, avoid dependencies and subsidize critical networks and technologies. China, which has long been accused of protecting domestic companies, has recently been 

TracFone concerns still run high for consumer groups

Consumer groups are still very much concerned about what happens if TracFone gets acquired by Verizon even though Verizon promises to serve the public interest.

Facebook’s Stealth M&A Puts Focus on Deals Under Antitrust Radar

Facebook did something US technology giants have done countless times before: it bought a smaller company and closed the deal without notifying competition regulators. But this transaction -- the $400 million acquisition of image library Giphy -- was particularly bold. Giphy used a common -- and legal -- maneuver that lets companies avoid scrutiny from merger watchdogs: it paid a dividend to investors.

Federal Trade Commission Refiles Facebook Antitrust Suit

The Federal Trade Commission filed an amended complaint against Facebook in the agency’s ongoing federal antitrust case. The complaint alleges that after repeated failed attempts to develop innovative mobile features for its network, Facebook instead resorted to an illegal buy-or-bury scheme to maintain its dominance. It unlawfully acquired innovative competitors with popular mobile features that succeeded where Facebook’s own offerings fell flat or fell apart.

California Public Utilities Commission rules T-Mobile lied about Sprint merger

T-Mobile lied to government regulators about its 3G shutdown plans in order to win approval of its merger with Sprint, according to a ruling from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Infrastructure Summer: Bipartisan Bill Boosts Corporate Giants

If passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act leads to even a significant portion of President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda through budget reconciliation, it will herald a new age of government investment and intervention in the economy, and a reversal of decades of pullbacks in public spending. On the surface, a $65 billion investment in broadband, with an emphasis on getting low-income and rural households connected and closing the digital divide, is an unalloyed positive.

Lumen Technologies to Sell US Telecom Assets to Apollo for $7.5 Billion

Lumen Technologies plans to sell a swath of its US telecommunications network to Apollo Global Management for $7.5 billion, including $1.4 billion of assumed debt. The investment giant will carve out some of Lumen’s so-called incumbent local exchange carrier assets, a collection of telephone and broadband infrastructure that covers 6 million residential and business customers across 20 states, mostly in the Midwest and Southeast. Lumen’s remaining operations will focus on large business clients, who generate most of its revenue, as well as home-broadband subscribers in 16 states including C

FTC's lead economics expert in Facebook antitrust suit leaves the agency

Carl Shapiro, the lead economics expert in the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust suit against Facebook, has parted ways with the agency—adding yet another impediment to the regulator’s largest court fight. The University of California-Berkeley economist has criticized new FTC Chair Lina Khan’s aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement, and she in turn has faulted the agency’s traditional reliance on economists’ analyses in its fights against alleged monopolists.

Predictably, T-Mobile’s merger promises weren’t enough to make a carrier out of Dish

When T-Mobile acquired Sprint in April of 2020, it brought our major wireless carrier choices from four down to three. Recognizing that this would indeed be a bad thing for US wireless customers (aka all of us), T-Mobile agreed to a set of conditions with the FCC’s blessing that would theoretically position Dish Network to fill the Sprint-shaped hole in our wireless landscape. In other words, one wireless competitor was allowed to reduce competition only if it agreed to help set up another competitor in its place. Sounds a little suspect, right?

Democratic Senators Push FCC to Scrutinize Verizon’s Tracfone Acquisition & Secure Commitments to Prioritize Consumers

Senators Edward Markey (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) pressed the Federal Communications Commission to probe Verizon’s proposed acquisition of TracFone and secure specific commitments from the company to ensure that this acquisition will not harm consumers. In the $6.9 billion transaction, Verizon would acquire one of the largest operators of the Lifeline program which provides free or discounted internet and affordable prepaid mobile phone services to low-income Americans.

The Dish ‘fix’ for the T-Mobile-Sprint merger seems more shortsighted than ever

To sell regulators on their $26 billion mega merger, T-Mobile and Sprint executives told anyone who’d listen that the deal would provide near-miraculous benefits. But economists warned that US telecom merger promises are historically meaningless, and the reduction in overall competitors would — sooner or later — result in higher prices and job cuts.

President Biden Announces Jonathan Kanter for Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Jonathan Kanter for Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice. Kanter is a distinguished antitrust lawyer with over 20 years of experience. Throughout his career, Kanter has also been a leading advocate and expert in the effort to promote strong and meaningful antitrust enforcement and competition policy.

Wu Weighs in on Executive Order on Competition

Tim Wu, President Joe Biden’s competition adviser on the National Economic Council, said “There is a growing sense that the forms of market power we see today are often different from the ones that the merger guidelines had in mind.

Reaction to Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy

“Our economy thrives on competition," said Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "It is the reason the United States is home to some of the most dynamic companies in the world. I welcome this effort by the President to enhance competition in the American economy and in the nation’s communications sector.”

States Target Google Play Store Practices in Antitrust Suit

Three dozen states and the District of Columbia filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company operates an illegal monopoly with its Google Play app store. The bipartisan antitrust suit adds to the company’s mounting legal challenges. Led by the state of Utah and filed in the U.S.

Verizon argues for TracFone purchase to Acting FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel

The Federal Communications Commission is still reviewing Verizon’s proposed purchase of TracFone Wireless from América Móvil. Verizon CEO of the Consumer Group, Ronan Dunne, and TracFone CEO, Eduardo Diaz Corona, met with Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to try and convince her that the transaction is in the public interest. Their main argument is that a combined Verizon/TracFone will introduce a third facilities-based provider in the prepaid segment to compete against T-Mobile’s Metro and AT&T’s Cricket.

Federal Trade Commission expands antitrust powers in Chair Lina Khan’s first open proceeding

The Federal Trade Commission passed a pair of pivotal measures expanding its power to regulate anti-competitive business practices, setting the stage for a more aggressive enforcement approach from the embattled agency. In the most aggressive effort, the commission voted to rescind a 2015 “Statement of Enforcement Principles” that restricted the FTC Act’s prescriptions on “unfair methods of competition” to explicit violations of existing antitrust law (specifically the Sherman and Clayton Acts). The vote proceeded along party lines, passing 3-2 with Democrats in the majority.

FCC Reinstates Media Ownership Rules

On June 4, 2021, the Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau released an order, consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in FCC v.

What does breaking up Big Tech really mean?

Over the past four or five years, scholars, politicians, and public advocates have begun to push a new idea of what antitrust policy should be, arguing that we need to move away from a narrow focus on consumer welfare—which in practice has usually meant a focus on prices—toward consideration of a much wider range of possible harms from companies’ exercise of market power: damage to suppliers, workers, competitors, customer choice, and even the political system as a whole.

Federal court dismisses FTC's antitrust complaint against Facebook

A district court in DC dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust complaint against Facebook, saying the agency had failed to offer enough facts to prove Facebook has monopoly power in the social media industry. The court said the FTC could file an amended complaint with more details to bolster its case, but the judge voiced outright skepticism that Facebook is a monopoly. “It is almost as if the agency expects the Court to simply nod to the conventional wisdom that Facebook is a monopolist,” District Judge James E.

Google, Facebook Pressure Falls Short as Antitrust Measures Advance in House Committee

The House Judiciary Committee approved far-reaching legislation to curb the market dominance of tech giants, including Google and Facebook, but much of the effort faced intensive lobbying by affected firms that slowed the committee’s work and foreshadowed a pitched battle in the Senate. The centerpiece of the six-bill package, a measure to bar big tech companies from favoring their own products in a range of circumstances on their platforms, was ap

Google and Amazon Defend Home Device Business in Antitrust Hearing

Google and Amazon defended their smart-speaker businesses as US senators warned the grip the companies have over the market could harm competition and consumer privacy. Both Republicans and Democrats at a June 15 hearing raised concerns about what they said were anticompetitive practices, such as selling devices below cost and promoting companies' own services over those of competitors on their platforms. Representatives from Google and Amazon argued that they prevent this by offering an optional range of rival voice-assistant services on their own devices.