The season finale tackles the FTC’s challenge to Tempur Sealy’s vertical merger with Mattress Firm. Was the merger a smart efficiency play in retail and manufacturing, or did it risk anticompetitive foreclosure?

In this episode, AI critiques the expert economic analysis, focusing on vertical merger guidelines, concentration risks, and real-world retail dynamics. We compare the AI take to the court’s perspective and close season 1 with big-picture lessons on how antitrust should handle innovation, efficiency, and evidence in fast-changing markets.

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In this episode, we examine the economic foundations of reverse-payment antitrust law through the lens of the Takeda verdict.

The Supreme Court’s *Actavis* decision shifted the focus from patent validity to payment size—but left unresolved how courts should measure what counts as “large.”

We explore the circularity embedded in the framework, the role of damages models, and why jury decisions may ultimately substitute for missing economic methods.

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https://blog.econworks.com/p/the-885-million-question-actavis?r=562wri

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In this episode, we talk about the complexities of digital advertising in the US. DOJ v. Google ad tech case. Google’s integrated platform dominates ad servers, exchanges, and networks, and critics have accused it of excluding rivals.

The AI looks at the main expert arguments about auctions, vertical integration, and market power and compares the criticism to the trial evidence. In this episode we unpack important but technical concepts like header bidding and multi-homing and put them in plain English. We also take a new look at one of the biggest ongoing antitrust battles in tech.

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https://blog.econworks.com/p/ai-v-judge-episode-4-united-states?r=562wri

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This episode explores the DOJ’s settlement with Agri Stats and the growing antitrust debate surrounding information sharing, algorithmic pricing, and AI coordination.

The discussion covers:

* why collusion is unstable,

* how monitoring systems sustain coordination,

* the role of AI pricing algorithms,

*and why future antitrust cases may become increasingly difficult to detect and prove.

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https://blog.econworks.com/p/when-does-sharing-data-become-the?r=562wri

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This episode turns to the FTC’s attempt to block the Tapestry (Coach) and Capri (Michael Kors, Kate Spade) merger. The central fight was over how to define the relevant market—a narrow “accessible luxury” segment or something much broader?

Using AI, we critique the expert report’s data choices, market framing, and economic analysis, then see how it stacked up against the court’s real-world assessment. This episode explores brand differentiation, consumer behavior, and the challenges of merger review in consumer goods. It’s a fascinating case that reveals a lot about current FTC strategy.

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This episode of EconWorks looks at one of the most important recent tests of serial acquisition enforcement: the FTC's lawsuit against U.S. Anesthesia Partners. The conversation looks at:

* Rollups in healthcare

* Definition of the market,

* Leverage in negotiations,

* Consolidation economics,

* and the challenge of reestablishing competitiveness once markets have already changed due to past acquisitions.

Significant legal and economic issues remain unsolved because the parties settled the case before the trial.

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Was the App Store an iOS-only monopoly or was it in a highly competitive multiplatform market? In episode two of the AI v. Judge series, AI takes a deep dive into the epic expert report in Epic v. Apple, including the fight over central market definition. We compare the AI assessment directly to the actual ruling of the court. The podcast features a comparison of broad and narrow marketplaces.

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Forget the headlines. The Musk–OpenAI lawsuit is really about one simple question: Who should control the most powerful technology ever built? Episode 1 of the AI Antitrust Series.

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What’s actually at stake in the Musk vs. OpenAI battle? Beyond the drama, this episode reveals the deeper fight over who controls the future of AI. A clear, no-hype breakdown of the lawsuit everyone is talking about.

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In the first episode of the AI Critique in Antitrust series, we introduce a powerful new approach: letting AI rigorously analyze expert economic reports from major cases, then benchmarking those critiques against actual judicial decisions. Discover why market definition matters so much and how this series will stress-test modern antitrust thinking.

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