Antitrust Policy in the 21st Century: Is There a Need for Reform?

Sharis Pozen argued that U.S. antitrust law was well-equipped to address current antitrust problems, but she favored more tailored interventions to evolve the law. In particular, she expressed concern about key Supreme Court antitrust cases, such as Trinko and Amex, which she thought were problematic and which could be overruled by Congress. Pozen also favor greater coordination between federal antitrust enforcers with perhaps a single agency in control of digital marketplace competition.

Herb Hovenkamp focused on three issues in his opening remarks. He started with an assessment of competition in digital marketplaces and on the extent to which these markets were or were not natural monopolies given the extent of differentiated product competition. He too was critical of the Supreme Court’s American Express decision. Finally, he turned to the FRAND regime associated with standard essential patents. Hovenkamp saw that regime as being important and that we needed to make sure that it was working effectively.