This document discusses competition issues in technology markets dominated by a small number of large firms, referred to as "moligopolists". It notes that while antitrust traditionally views each market in isolation, these firms compete across multiple overlapping markets. It raises questions about whether antitrust analysis needs new approaches to analyze innovation competition, labor markets, and other types of competition that occur between these moligopolists. The document also discusses how providing public goods and funding other companies are new ways these firms may compete, challenging traditional antitrust frameworks. It concludes that rethinking market definition, market power analysis, and remedies may be needed to effectively address competition in these complex technology markets.
Lund moligopolists - presentation (09 11 15) n petit
1. ANTITRUST AND THE CHALLENGE OF
POLICING « MOLIGOPOLISTS »
Nicolas PETIT
Lund
09 November M&A, 2015
Twitter: @CompetitionProf
2. WORLD OF ANTITRUST (AT) OFFICIALS, LAWYERS
AND ECONOMISTS
Archipelago of relevant markets with
monopolists on each island
Microsoft (OS for PC)
Google (Mobile OS)
Intel (x86 CPUs)
Samsung (SEPs) and Apple (SEPs)
Rambus (JEDEC compliant products)
IBM (mainframe maintenance)
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3. WORLD OF BUSINESS CORPORATIONS AND
ANALYSTS
The tech world
http://uk.businessinsider.com/face-
apple-and-microsoft-versus-google-
2014-12?r=US
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/0
5/17/rivals-a-short-history-of-google-
and-microsoft-long-burning-turf-and-
platform-war/
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/smart
est-richest-companies-cant-crack-mobile-
future-belongs-anyone-can/
The tech war
Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon,
Microsoft are all competitors at war in the
market
Some of their activities overlap, but their
core is very distinct (Google search, Apple
smartphone, Microsoft OS, Facebook social
networks, Amazon online commerce)
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/lo
w_concept/features/2013/wargames/what
_if_google_and_apple_went_to_war_in_rea
l_life.html
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4. THE MOLIGOPOLY PARADOX
Monopolists (AT) exposed to cutthroat
competition (Tech) of large rivals outside
of their core RM?
Fair to say that antitrust policy has
traditionally approached monopoly with
a structural spin: crude rules on abuse of
dominance and blunt merger
presumptions
Risk of type I errors (false convictions)
Handful of technology oligopolists (Tech)
with entrenched market positions (AT) in
distinct segments and intense coordination?
Fair to say that antitrust policy has
traditionally had a tough time with
oligopoly markets (outside merger
control)
Risk of type 2 errors (false acquittals)
+ Intense wedge of ties amongst non
rivals: antitrust policy does not deal with
coordination amongst non competitors
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5. IS A NEW PARADIGM NEEDED?
Classic antitrust approach
1. Consumer welfare
2. Market power
3. Market conduct
4. Remedies
New antitrust approach?
Existing research: Y. Zvetiev; J. Wright; J.
Wright and D. Ginsburg; G. Sidak and D.
Teece
Antitrust enforcement is too blunt
When antitrust is well applied it is not applied
systematically or only at the margins
Other tools ought to be invented?
Do we fully understand the complex
competition relationships above, beyond and
accross relevant markets?
Epistemology: Porter should talk to Tirole,
and vice versa?
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6. THE NATURE OF COMPETITION IN
MOLIGOPOLIES I
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7. GOING FROM 0 TO 1
Actual competition irrelevant for Moligopolists? => Moligopolists compete on future
products and services
Belief that all could die tomorrow: « competition is one click away » => survival spirit
Clayton Christensen, Innovators’ Dilemma
Process of constant tinkering with ideas => moonshots research
Google X; Microsoft Special Projects; etc.
Innovation mix: strategic and « blue sky » research
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8. STRATEGIC INPUTS
Moligopolists compete for labor (talents)
3 March 2015, Four Tech Giants Reach Tentative $415 Mln Settlement In Antitrust
Hiring Case; emails of late Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs, former Google CEO Eric
Schmidt, Google Co-founder Sergey Brin and some others that revealed plans to
avoid hiring each others prized engineers http://www.rttnews.com/2466216/four-
tech-giants-reach-tentative-415-mln-settlement-in-antitrust-hiring-case.aspx
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9. MOLIGOPOLISTS STATEMENTS
Google, SEC 2015 Annual Report: “Competition in our industry for qualified employees
is intense, and certain of our competitors have directly targeted our employees. In
addition, our compensation arrangements, such as our equity award programs, may not
always be successful in attracting new employees and retaining and motivating our
existing employees”
Apple, SEC 2015 Annual Report: “The Company’s success depends largely on the
continued service and availability of key personnel”
Facebook, SEC 2015 Annual Report: “We compete to attract, engage, and retain
people, to attract and retain marketers … “In particular, we intend to continue to hire a
significant number of technical personnel in the foreseeable future, and we expect to
face significant competition from other companies in hiring such personnel, particularly
in the San Francisco Bay Area”
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11. FUNDING OF OTHER FIRMS
Moligopolists are big fundgivers
24 February 2015, Wall Street Journal: “In their current fundraising efforts, both Uber
Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have asked potential investors to sign agreements stating
they won’t invest in competitors for a period of six months to a year, according to
people familiar with the policies” http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-and-lyft-force-
investors-to-play-favorites-1424811518
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12. FREE OUTPUTS?
Consumer welfare irrelevant? Moligopolists often provide freebies
Yahoo 25 MB mail accounts v Google 2 GB for free in 2004; Yahoo significantly
impacted, though erosion was slow
Yahoo was “freed”
C. Anderson, Free
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13. BOTTOM LINES
AT inapt to modelize innovation, borrower
and labor competition in new economy?
Distrust in the future
EU Guidelines on technology transfer, 2014:
“Some licence agreements may affect competition
in innovation. In analysing such effects, however,
the Commission will normally confine itself to
examining the impact of the agreement on
competition within existing product and
technology markets”
Opportunity for antitrust
Do not care for consumer welfare, unless
borrower and labor welfare is low
Sort of inter-brand v intra brand
competition Chicagoan screen
Need more testing:
Understand if business angels and venture
capitals view GAFAM as competing investments
Research in 3 rating agencies
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14. THE FAILURE OF APPLIED
COMPETITION THEORY? II
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15. APPLIED COMPETITION THEORY
Applied competition theory is based on a neo-classical vision of the market environment where
profit maximizing firms compete on prices for actual goods and services
Top down, structured and legal vision of innovation
Guidelines on tech transfer, 2014: “Some licence agreements may affect competition in innovation … In
such cases it can be analysed whether after the agreement there will be a sufficient number of competing
research and development poles left for effective competition in innovation to be maintained”
Risk averse and conservative when it envisions the competitive potential generated by
technological disruption
Fails to accept arguments that disruption disciplines established players (type I error), incumbency bias
Fails to see risks created by acquisition of small disruptive firms (type II errors), bigness bias
“Ignorance” hypothesis: Judge Easterbrook once noted “the gale of creative destruction
produces victims before it produces economic theories and proof of what is beneficial”.
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16. ROOT CAUSES
Old economy assumption that labour that is abundant and fungible >< distinct on
tech markets
Contempt for irrational investments in high tech, late 1990s bubble trauma
Alan Greenspan “irrational exuberance”;
Taleb “predictable irrationality”
Epistemological monopoly of IO scholarship
Discredit of general equilibrium analyzis
Dependence on rational cost/benefit analyzis in innovation choices
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18. PUBLIC GOODS ISSUE
Intuition
Beyond philanthropy, provision of public
goods by moligopoly players
Evidence that the moligopolists tend also
penetrate traditional public goods sectors,
and more generally, utilities sectors
Information (wikipedia)
Utilities(broadband, personal mobility, etc.)
Moligopolists as private ordering alternative
to classic State model for the provision of
public goods
Interest
Pros: reduces costs of political reform
for Government
Cons: States lose legitimacy, with
competition in the provision of public
goods; explains welfare States
propensity to want to regulate them;
Less the case in free market countries
In antitrust process, what scope for
justifications and design of competition
agencies?
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20. SEVERAL ISSUES
1. Market definition
2. Market power
3. Market conduct
4. Remedies
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21. MARKET DEFINITION
Moligopolist is firm with monopoly but that compete at the same time in oligopoly
Microsoft monopolist in OS, oligopolist in browser, search, cloud and further
Google monopolist in search, oligopolist in automated cars, glasses and other
Apple monopolist in handset, oligopolist in social network, watches, etc.
Amazon monopolist in online sales, oligopolist in cloud, etc.
Should we seek to approach this multidimensional competition in a holistic manner,
and if yes how?
After all, a firm is a singular entity, and it is artificial and arbitrary to view it as a
bundle of insulated production functions
Not the direction taken by antitrust
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22. P. THIEL, MONOPOLY LIES AND THE TYPICAL AT
PROBLEM
“Even if Google completely monopolized
U.S. search engine advertising, it would
own just 3.4% of the global advertising
market »
“Consumer tech is a $964 billion market
globally, Google owns less than 0.24%
of it”
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23. CONCRETE EXAMPLE
TomTom/TeleAtlas, 2008 Merger Decision, paras 63 to 66
“PNDs and mobile telephones with navigation functionality meet different consumer needs. A PND is
primarily a navigation device, while a mobile telephone with navigation functionality usually incorporates a
wide range of functions allowing the user to make calls, send SMS and MMS messages, take photographs,
listen to music, access the internet and send e-mails. Navigation is not the core functionality of such mobile
phones. The different functionalities are reflected in the price. While mid-range PNDs retail at
approximately EUR 200, mobile telephones with navigation functionality typically cost approximately EUR
500. (64) Because they are currently single-purpose devices, PNDs are better adapted to navigation. The
user interface is designed so that it is easy to enter address information and search for POIs. To this end,
most PNDs have touch-screen functionality. Mobile telephones rarely have keys dedicated for navigation
and users have to rely on the standard alphanumeric keypad to use navigation features. PNDs have larger
screens and therefore are better suited for automotive use. Mobile telephones with navigation functionality
have smaller screens which are less adequate for in-car use36. (65) For these reasons, the Commission
considers that PNDs and mobile telephones with navigation functionality currently constitute separate
relevant product markets”.
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24. 2-S MARKETS AND THE 2ND TYPICAL AT PROBLEM
Endless attempts to convert freebies in money
Bork and Sidak (2012): "the two-sided market for Internet search: Internet users have demand
for free search, and advertisers have demand for viewers”; “search engines compete on quality
alone”
Luccheta (2012): “Probably not. In the upstream market [...] it buys eyeballs from single
consumers in exchange of search services (inkind payment). Then, it sells well-profiled eyeballs to
advertisers in the downstream market”
But how to monetize data that is given away and how to make SSNIP assessment when
price=0 + market is two sided?
Antitrust law deals indirectly with free markets: “search advertising” is not yet a market, but
online ad is (Google/DoubleClick; Microsoft/Yahoo); Internet search left unclear
(Microsoft/Yahoo); Data collection not viewed as a market, but indirect relevance for ad
business (Facebook/Whats’App)
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25. BOTTOM LINES
Moligopolists compete in same market?
Statement of Bureau of Competition Director
Richard Feinstein Regarding the
Announcement that Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Has Resigned from Apple's Board,
2009:“We have been investigating the
Google/Apple interlocking directorates issue
for some time and commend them for
recognizing that sharing directors raises
competitive issues, as Google and Apple
increasingly compete with each other”
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-
releases/2009/08/statement-bureau-
competition-director-richard-feinstein-
regarding
AT implications
Risk of missing the forest for the trees
Introduce literature on dynamic capabilities
(Teece and Pisano, 1994)
Abandon market definition? L. Kaplow,
« Market Definition: Impossible and
Counterproductive », Antitrust Law Journal,
2014: “At least to industrial organization
economists [...] the notion of a relevant market
does not exist in the field”
But market definition can be useful
For “out-of-monopoly market” efficiency assessments
Innovation markets must be taken seriously, and defined
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26. MARKET POWER
Guidance Paper, §11, focus on power over price/output
“the expression ‘increase prices’ includes the power to maintain prices above the competitive level and is
used as shorthand for the various ways in which the parameters of competition — such as prices, output,
innovation, the variety or quality of goods or services”
Guidance Paper, § 12, three-pronged method
« market position of the dominant undertaking and its competitors »
« expansion and entry »
« countervailing buyer power »
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27. STRUCTURAL FACTORS (I)
Antitrust economics
Market shares is the pick of the crop for
antitrust agencies
HHI
Concentration ratios
Lerner Index
Critical loss analysis
What happens in practice
Profusion of confusing arguments
Complex to separate wheat from chaff
Example of the smartphone industry
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30. MARKET SHARE SMARTPHONES OS
Period Android iOS Windows Phone BlackBerry OS Others
Q3
2014
84.4% 11.7% 2.9% 0.5% 0.6%
Q3
2013
81.2% 12.8% 3.6% 1.7% 0.6%
Q3
2012
74.9% 14.4% 2.0% 4.1% 4.5%
Q3
2011
57.4% 13.8% 1.2% 9.6% 18.0%
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31. HOW TO READ THIS?
Apple and Samsung both dominant in a
same relevant market?
No one is dominant? Apple competes on
profits, Samsung on size, basta...
But can you really capture 93% of the
industry profits, without being dominant?:
“Apple's domination in the smartphone market compelled Canaccord
Genuity to raise its price target on Apple stock to $145 on Monday,
advising investors to buy in on the continued strength of the new
iPhone 6, which decimated profits for competitors last quarter”.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/02/09
/canaccord-raises-apple-price-target-to-
145-estimates-iphone-captured-93-of-
smartphone-profits
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/09/
apple-grabs-93-of-the-handset-industrys-
profit-report-says/
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32. BARRIERS TO ENTRY (AND EXPANSION) (II)
Unsettled debate in antitrust policy on the concept of barrier to entry
Bain, Barriers to new competition, Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1956
Stigler “costs that must be incurred by an entrant that were not incurred by established firms”
Bainian focus on incumbency as a barrier to entry deep ingrained in AT policy
Guidance paper, §17 lists economies of scale as a possible barrier
Horizontal merger guidelines, §71 consider that “barriers to entry may also exist because of the
established position of the incumbent firms on the market”
In Intel, the Commission noted that scale was a barrier to entry, §866: “it will be necessary to achieve a
high capacity utilisation to maximise average cost reductions and hence compete most efficiently with the
producers already in the market (essentially, AMD and Intel)”
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33. BARRIERS TO ENTRY (AND EXPANSION) (II)
P. Thiel, Zero to One, 2012: “First mover isn’t what’s important — it’s the last mover”
C. Christensen, The Innovators Dilemma, 1997 and the role of disruptive technologies
C. Anderson, Free: on Yahoo 25 MB mail accounts v Google 2 GB for free in 2004;
Yahoo significantly impacted, though erosion was slow (now 8, Gmail 2:
https://emailclientmarketshare.com/)
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34. BARRIERS TO ENTRY (AND EXPANSION) (II)
Intel
http://techland.time.com/2012/07/16/
arm-vs-intel-how-the-processor-wars-
will-benefit-consumers-most/
Others
Incumbency played no role
Google
35th search engine to enter the market
6 years old market for search engines
With large companies (Yahoo, Lycos, etc.)
Confirmation in Gandal, 2001, International Journal of Industrial
Organization, 19 (2001) 1103–1117
Microsoft
In June 1985, Mac was the market leader in OS, MSFT DOS a
distant rival
Mac had the dominant GUI, which it bought from Xerox: killer
app
Bill Gates letter to Apple:
http://www.cultofmac.com/148548/in-1985-bill-gates-
pitched-apple-to-make-macintosh-into-windows/
MSFT developed the Excel spreadsheet
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35. COUNTERVAILING POWER (III)
Two decisions in 2014 involving Apple
Antitrust, 39939, 29.04.2014, Samsung – Enforcement of UMTS SEPs
Antitrust, 39985, 29.04.2014, Motorola – Enforcement of GPRS SEPS
Proceedings related to enforcement of Standard Essential Patents before courts
Narrow technology market (« Motorola Cudak GPRS SEPs ») where Motorola is inevitably a
monopolist
Motorola counter-argued that Apple had countervailing power => Moligopoly defense:
“Apple is one of the world's largest companies and is estimated to account for 70% of all
smartphone profits worldwide whereas Motorola has made substantial losses in the past few
year”, §238
But the Commission said it did not matter: “It is, however, possible for both a seller and for a
buyer to hold a dominant position within the meaning of Article 102 TFEU”, §246 …
How can one be dominant and dominated at the same time?
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36. BOTTOM LINES
Observations
Moligopolists may have power over price and
output, but not necessarily on innovation, labor and
investment
Moligopolists often compete on distinct markets, and
rarely on overlapping markets
Moligopolists can be displaced by competition at the
periphery (RIM did not see rise of touch screen; Intel
did not anticipate tablet growth)
Moligopolists engage in preemptive competition, on
future products/markets
Moligopolists durability/resilience
Microsoft’s several lives
Apple’s several lives
Policy questions
Power over price outdated?
Monopolists often last movers (Microsoft,
Google, etc.) => obsessive focus on early
market development?
Antitrust authorities to focus on barriers to entry
but also on barriers to periphery?
Time matters: permanence > dominance?
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37. Power over
price/output v R&D
investments
Firms from this chart subject to recent
antitrust proceedings?
1. Samsung (2)
2. Microsoft (3)
3. Intel (4)
4. Google
5. Cisco
6. IBM
7. Nokia
8. Sony
9. Ericsson
10. Oracle
11. Huawei
12. Qualcomm
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38. MARKET CONDUCT
« Walled garden »
Hazlett et al
AOL/TimeWarner
Apple iPhone, iPad, and iStore
« Platform threat »
Java, Netscape and Mozilla v Microsoft
Apps v Browser (Wired: « The Web is dead, long live the Internet », http://www.wired.com/2010/08/ff_webrip/)
« Envelopment »
Eisenmann, Parker and Van Alstyne, Platform envelopment
Microsoft envelopment of Real
Google, envelopping productivity tools, emails, and browser in search
« Climb the ladder »
Carlton and Waldman
Component market moves up to the core
TomTom/TeleAtlas?
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39. ANTITRUST HAS ALL THE NEEDED ECONOMIC
THEORIES
Antitrust economics with horizontal, vertical and conglomeral foreclosure
Eating rival market share to capture direct and indirect network externalities
Network effects (« snowball effect ») and switching costs (« lock-in »)
See joint study CMA and FCA on open and closed systems:
http://www.autoritedelaconcurrence.fr/doc/economics_open_closed_systems.pdf
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40. DOES IT HAVE THE RIGHT LEGAL TOOLS? –
UNILATERAL CONDUCT
Abuse legislation is elastic
Rambus: gap case and the road to
dominance story (L-H. Röller) => abuse of a
non-dominant position
Microsoft – WMP and Internet Explorer:
access to convenient distribution facility =>
circumvented, with reclassification as abusive
tying
Google Search: duty to not favour own
search services over other? Essential facility?
Search neutrality? Discrimination?
Should it be rigidified?
Yes: caution warranted given the amount
of oligopolistic competition, risks of type
I errors
No: adaptability needed to cover new
kinds of abuse, risks of type II errors
Debate needed on the probability and
seriousness of welfare losses caused by
type I and II decisional errors in digital
economy
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41. DOES IT HAVE THE RIGHT LEGAL TOOLS? MERGER
CONTROL
Moligopolists participate intensely to the M&A market
By acquiring promising start ups likely to work on prospective killer application
Sometimes to shutdown a potential competitor (http://www.businessinsider.com/microsofts-15-biggest-
acquisitions-and-what-happened-to-them-2011-3?IR=T)
Possible efficiencies: prospect of absorption prompts startups to innovate
Merger control often inapplicable
Transactions which feature a large acquirer and a small target often evade the merger control
system because they fall short of the turnover thresholds which capture only the biggest
transactions
Facebook+Instagram/Facebook+Snapchat
German monopoly commission: focus on transaction price/volume
No overlap?
Lose links with EU territory?
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42. TESTING REMAINS COMPLEX
Evidence (or testing) is problematic
Case-evidence that dominant firms losing shares and profits: Microsoft IE, Intel CPUs, etc.
Absence of foreclosure effects or proof of attempted foreclosure?
Dominant firm decline should have gone faster: you dope, you lose. But still sanctioned because you would have lost worse?
Rival should have thrived faster
Counterfactual analysis needed to test abuse => but lack of counterfactual in digital economy
Other sources of contradictory evidence (event study): J. Wright (2011) finds that
AMD experienced significant financial gains until 2006 => how to explain
Little work on magnitude of anticompetitive effects: « Hold up » and the patent war,
$100 million in total legal costs incurred by Apple in 2012 represent less than 0.1%
of its total revenues… What kind of leverage is this? Unable to hold up/exclude?
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43. REMEDIES AND THE DESIGN PROBLEM
Microsoft, WMP: retailers bought 1,787 copies which amounted to less than 0.005% of the copies
of all sales of Windows XP (heavy resting costs for retailers unwilling to compensate OEMs, etc.);
Excluded Real Networks launches but contemporary to the investigation, Real launches successful
Raphsody service in 2001…
Microsoft, Server OS: until recently, MS still has 85% in PC OS and server OS share increased…
Intel: AMD’s share decreased since 2006 to 20-30% in 2014; AMD announced 2012 it will refocus
away from X86 to tablets; ARM entry in tablets, and now CPUs
Rambus: Commitments by Rambus to license its patents worldwide at either a zero royalty rate (for
technology reading on standards that were adopted when Rambus was a member of JEDEC) or a
1.5% royalty rate for future JEDEC compliant products. Many JEDEC-based products sold at 0,75%
or 1% rate…
Motorola: 2014 decision addressed to Motorola … but toothless, because it is Google that has
kept most patents following de-merger (http://thevarguy.com/information-technology-merger-and-
acquistion-news/013014/lenovo-buying-spree-delivers-motorola-mobility-goo)
Need ex post assessment of remedial effectiveness in digital markets
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45. APPLYING TIMELY REMEDIES IS DIFFICULT
Antitrust is slow
Duration of proceedings
Google, 6 years old
Intel, 9 years following complaint
Microsoft, 6 years following complaint, but
implementation of remedy took 10 years (Sun
1998 complaint led to 2004 decision
implemented 2008)
Astra Zeneca, 7 years following complaints
Alternatives
Ex ante regulation?
Net neutrality example?
Risks of rent seeking?
Ex post but faster?
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46. TOOLS EXIST
EU Commission has powers to make quick
impact
Article 8(1) of Regulation 1/2003
“[i]n cases of urgency due to the risk of serious and
irreparable damage to competition, the Commission,
acting on its own initiative may by decision, on the
basis of a prima facie finding of infringement, order
interim measures”;
“[a] decision under paragraph 1 shall apply for a
specified period of time and may be renewed in so
far this is necessary and appropriate.”
Article 9 commitments
Timing is slow too: Rio Tinto (4y and 11m);
Google (5y)
Compliance and monitoring issues
(Microsoft, Browser)
Jean Yves Art proposal (interim measures)
German Monopoly Commission has proposed
a more intensive use of interim measures in
“abuse cases in the digital economy”
Mario Todino proposal (mandatory
deadlines)
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48. POSSIBLE REFORM AREAS
Rethink role and methods of market definition?
Assume consumer welfare, scrutinize borrower and labor welfare?
Change focus from dominance to resilience and from incumbency to ultimacy?
Secure independence of antitrust agencies?
The dangerous temptation of quick enforcement
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49. THEORY
Need a theory of the « whole » where more than one narrow market matters
Moligopolists seek to develop an outter core where they become monopolists, and only
compete in the antitrust sense as oligopolists in the inner periphery
But the inner periphery is not necessarily meaningful competition from a technological
standpoint (insurance policy « one iron in the fire »; mainly coordination issues)
The competition that matters is the one that takes place on and between outter monopoly
cores, and that antitrust authorities do not consider
AT unconsideration of competition between outter cores, just see monopoly
Possibility that size/thickness of outter core v size/thickness of inner periphery matters?
Risk to focus on bug bites and lose big picture; and risks of losing relevancy to the benefit of
ex ante populistic regulation (incl. rent seeking risk)
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50. OUTTER CORES AND INNER PERIPHERIES
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51. COMPARE WITH EXISTING MODELS OF
COMPETITION?
Mineral exploration, drilling and mining: some serendipity
Music industry: keep prices low, attract talents, sell premium experience
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52. NEXT
Reseach paper and book on Moligopolists
Method:
Verify paradox with systematic survey of business analysts reports (CRAs?); focus on 5 GAFAM firms
Interviews with VC and BAs
Game with students on GAFAM?
Other sources: your take?
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