Competition Lore Podcast

One of the fathers of economics, Adam Smith, famously said:

“people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”

He was referring of course to the irresistible temptation by competitors to collude. 

Business collusion to subvert competition may be as old as the hills but it is facing new challenges.

In today’s world, the combination of Big Data, speed-of-light digital connectivity and giga-normous computational capacity, allows for competitors to collude through algorithms in ways unimaginable in the pre-internet age.

It’s a challenge that Professor Michal Gal of the University of Haifa is paying close attention to. 

In this episode of Competition Lore Michal explains how algorithms make coordination between rivals much easier and more efficient.  She shares her creative thinking on how consumers themselves can use algorithms to counteract the anti-competitive effects.  And she helps us to understand the extent to which the current law captures algorithmic collusion as well as the ways in which it needs to adapt to keep up with technological developments.

If you would like to learn more from Michal on the topics discussed in the episode, I highly recommend her papers:

Algorithmic Consumers, 2017 (with Niva Elkin-Koren), published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology

Algorithms as Illegal Agreements, 2018, to be published in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal

And here you can find out about the Topkins case that Michal referred to, a case brought by the US Department of Justice in 2015 which involved the use of dynamic pricing algorithms in the sale of online posters.

Michal also referred to research by John Connor (regarding cartel overcharges) and Oren Bar-Gill (regarding price discrimination).  If you are interested in reading some of this work, here are the references:

John Connor, Cartels Costly for Consumers, 2017

Oren Bar-Gill, Big Data, Privacy and Price Discrimination: A Behavioural Economics Perspective, 2015

Still hungry for more? Here are some of Michal’s other recent papers on related topics:

The Hidden Costs of Free Goods: Implications for Antitrust Enforcement, 2016 (with Daniel Rubinfeld)

Algorithmic Challenges to Autonomous Choice, 2017

The Social Contract at the Basis of Competition Law, 2017

The Power of the Crowd in the Sharing Economy, 2018

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s behind the statement that all of us make sometimes: “that’s none of your business!”?  Have you ever thought about when and why you regard your information or behaviour as private?

These are questions that we all need to grapple with in a platform economy, the basis for which is the collection and use of vast amounts of personal data.

Some regard privacy as a human right, integral to our personhood.  Others regard it as an asset, tradeable for commercial value. There is also a view that privacy is essential to the workings of a liberal democratic society.

In this episode of Competition Lore we are joined by Professor Colin Bennett, a political scientist who specialises in privacy, from the University of Victoria in Canada.

In a wide ranging rich discussion, Colin explains how the meaning of privacy is highly context-specific, what kinds of value we ascribe to it and how it sometimes bumps up against other competing public interests including free speech and a free market.

We talk about the international trade implications of data protection and about the governance of privacy at an international level, including how big tech companies are weighing into the policy and public discourse, what he thinks about the claim that Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation is a form of digital protectionism… and much much more.

This episode is longer than previous episodes but is jam-packed with information and insights you will not want to miss... 

If you’re keen to learn more about privacy, here’s a sample of Colin’s recent work:

The European General Data Protection Regulation: An instrument for the globalization of privacy standards?, 2018

In Defense of Privacy: The Concept and the Regime, 2011

International Privacy Standards: A Continuing Convergence?, 2010

The Governance of Privacy: Policy Instruments in Global Perspective, 2016 (2nd ed) (with Charles Raab)

The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance, 2008

What Government Should Know about Privacy: A Foundation Paper, 2001

Visions of Privacy: Policy Choices for the Digital Age, 1999 (Rebecca Grant)

Or you can visit his personal website at http://www.colinbennett.ca/.

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big Data and Big Analytics have policymakers in a frenzy. In some parts of the world this is leading to regulation that provides greater protection for privacy. But what does privacy have to do with competition?

There are heated debates about whether stricter privacy regulation will shut down competition and innovation or whether it will drive competitive forces in a data-driven economy.

Much of the debate has been focused on Europe’s latest Big Tech missile, the General Data Protection Regulation. But in the US also, some policymakers are considering following suit.

This episode of Competition Lore features Peter Harris, Chairman of the Australian Productivity Commission, one of Australia’s leading public policy thinkers and the architect behind an innovative policy reform, a proposed comprehensive consumer right to data.

It’s a reform slated to power up competition by empowering consumers while at the same time bolstering privacy. More broadly it is a reform aimed at creating a social licence for data collection and use, for the benefit of us all.

If you would like more information about the Consumer Data Right, you can read the Productivity Commission’s 2017 data report here and the Australian Government’s response, and other related material, here.

You might also be interested in this:

Platform power and privacy protection: The case for policy innovation, 2018

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Professor Colin Bennett, a political scientist who specialises in privacy, from the University of Victoria in Canada explains how the meaning of privacy is highly context-specific, what kinds of value we ascribe to it and how it sometimes bumps up against other competing public interests.

As debates about big tech heat up, one of the talking points has been the decision of the European Commission to impose a record €2.42 billion fine on Google for abusing its dominance as a search engine by giving illegal advantage to its own comparison shopping service.

The decision took 7 years to make and is now on appeal.  But Google is not alone in disagreeing with it.

Some experts argue that the way in which Google’s search engine dealt with rival comparison shopping sites doesn’t fit neatly into any category of abuse recognised under European competition law.  More fundamentally, critics say that the Commission focussed too much on harm (unfairness even) to competitors and not enough on possible harm to consumers.

Adding to the controversy is that the US Federal Trade Commission has investigated the same conduct and found Google did not have a case to answer.

Professor Pinar Akman, Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice at the University of Leeds, is an expert on Europe’s abuse of dominance law and has studied the case closely. Some of her research has been funded by Google but the views she expresses are her own.

In this episode of Competition Lore, Pinar explains why the Commission’s decision should be seen, at best, as novel. She reflects on why the US FTC reached a different view on the same conduct and points out the problems with the remedy of equal treatment with which Google has had to comply.

If you would like to read the European Commission’s decision in the Google shopping case, here are links to:

The decision in full (beware it is 215 pages long!)

The summary of the decision

The Commission’s press release about the decision

And if you would like to read what Pinar has written on the case, here are links to:

A detailed analysis

An abbreviated version...

You may also enjoy watching or listening to a live debate held by Intelligence Squared and the BBC in London on the motion: “Break Up the Tech Giants”, in which Pinar was a speaker against the motion: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/break-up-the-tech-giants/.

 

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Professor Pinar Akman explains why the European Commission’s decision to impose a record €2.42 billion fine on Google should be seen, at best, as novel. She reflects on why the US FTC reached a different view on the same conduct and points out the problems with the remedy of equal treatment with which Google has had to comply.

The argument over Big Data is split. Some argue Big Data makes a small number of platform companies extremely powerful.  These companies have so much data and such resources that they can damage competition, erode our privacy and maybe even distort our democracy.

But not everyone shares this view. Others say the data giants are so gigantic because they serve us so well.  We value what they offer and most of us don’t mind paying for it with our privacy. The ‘big is bad’ theory is not only wrong, it’s dangerous.

Geoffrey Manne is one of the loudest critics.  He argues that Big Tech opponents have failed to identify clear harms to consumer welfare and calls for an evidence-based approach using an error-cost framework.  He also questions the wisdom of trying to shoehorn broader social and political concerns into the narrow economic remit of antitrust law.

In this episode of Competition Lore, Geoff explains why we need to be wary of claims about privacy intrusion as anti-competitive, why network effects should be seen as good not bad, and why the argument that large data-sets prevent new entry is overblown.  He doesn’t buy the idea that big business effectively lobbies government to stifle regulation and he muses that the European crackdown on powerful platform companies may be anti-US protectionism at work. For him, the so far restrained approach of the US authorities is the right one.  The risks of getting it wrong, he argues, are just too great.

Here’s a sample of Geoff’s recent writing on these topics:

Big Tech’s Big-Time, Big-Scale Problem, 2018 (with Gus Hurwitz)

Google and the Limits of Antitrust: The Case Against the Antitrust Case Against Google, 2017 (with Joshua Wright)

Innovation and the Limits of Antitrust, 2012 (with Joshua Wright)

The Problem of Search Engines as Essential Facilities: An Economic & Legal Assessment, 2011 (with Joshua Wright)

The Law and Economics of Data and Privacy in Antitrust Analysis, 2014 (with Ben Sperry)

The Problems and Perils of Bootstrapping Privacy and Data into an Antitrust Framework, 2015 (with Ben Sperry)

A Critical Assessment of the Latest Charge of Google's Anticompetitive Bias from Yelp and Tim Wu, 2016 (with Ben Sperry and Kristian Stout)

Truth on the Market blogs, https://truthonthemarket.com/author/geoffmanne/

And here’s that quirky song from Tower of Power – ‘What is hip’

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever thought of your data as currency? When was the last time you read the privacy policy when you signed up to an online service? Who has the time? And what are you going to do if you don’t agree? 

Professor Maurice Stucke argues that what we all thought was free, is still actually costing us – it’s just not taking our money. Coining that now pervasive aphorism, in the digital world the currency is data and we may well be handing it over without knowing its true value. This is just one of a series of economic, political and social risks associated with the rise of large data-driven business models highlighted by Professor Stucke. 

In this episode of Competition Lore, Maurice Stucke explains how our data is powering digital platforms and outlines a regulatory and enforcement agenda for governments and competition authorities to keep a check on their power.

Here is just a sample of Maurice Stucke's  recent work:

No Mistake About It: The Important Role of Antitrust in the Era of Big Data, 2015 (with Allen Grunes)

Debunking the Myths Over Big Data and Antitrust, 2015 (with Allen Grunes)

Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy, Harvard University Press, 2016 (with Ariel Ezrachi)

When Competition Fails to Optimize Quality: A Look at Search Engines, 2016 (with Ariel Ezrachi)

Big Data and Competition Policy, Oxford University Press, 2016 (with Allen Grunes)

How Digital Assistants Can Harm our Economy, Privacy, and Democracy, 2017 (with Ariel Ezrachi)

Should we be concerned about data-opolies?, 2018

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The digital revolution affecting economies and societies cuts across multiple areas of government policy and is engendering an active dialogue between policymakers. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is playing a key role in advancing this dialogue and no more so than in the area of competition policy.

Should governments be regulating powerful data-driven companies? What tools and skills do competition authorities need to protect competition in a digital economy? How should different government authorities work together in this mission? 

These are the questions that the Head of the Competition Division of the OECD, Antonio Gomes and his colleagues, are asking and they’re bringing stakeholders from government, academia and business together to find the answers.

In this episode of Competition Lore, Antonio shares the latest thinking of the Competition Division on the challenges and opportunities for competition authorities grappling with the digital transformation of markets.

In a wide ranging discussion, we touch on vertical restraints in e-commerce, market definition and power in multi-sided markets, and the importance and timing of intervention to promote innovation, amongst other things.

Here are links to the OECD’s resources on the digital economy, innovation and competition.

And you can see Antonio and his colleagues discussing the work of the Competition Division on Youtube.

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The way we consume news and media has changed dramatically over the past decade. Print newspapers are almost a thing of nostalgia and few of us wait to sit down in front of a television just to see what’s happening. Digital platforms are replacing media empires.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is conducting an inquiry into the effect that digital search engines, social media and content aggregators have on media and advertising. Rod Sims is the Chairman of the ACCC – a role in which he’s accustomed to industry upheaval and public controversy.

In this episode of Competition Lore, Rod Sims outlines what's involved in scrutinising the platform goliaths, while admiring their business models and balancing the expectations of stakeholders.

Here’s all the links for the ACCC’s Digital Platforms Inquiry, including the Terms of Reference, Issues Paper and Submissions.

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.