Publications
The New York Times' Steve Lohr, who has covered the tech industry for more than two decades, explains how we may be entering a progressive era of antitrust. He speaks with Open Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn on the changing political landscape. “The environment is radically different than it was even a year or two ago,” Lynn told him. “It’s a grass-roots rebellion against concentrated power.”
Read MoreA reporter who has covered the tech industry for more than two decades explains how we may be entering a progressive era of antitrust.
Read MoreThe New York Times' Natasha Singer "reviews the week’s news, offering analysis about the most important developments in the tech industry." She cites Open Markets' Researcher and Reporter Matthew Buck's piece on the Washington Monthly, which argues that Amazon, Google and Facebook should stay out of health care, among "Stories You Shouldn't Miss."
Read MoreThe Washington Post's Tony Romm reports that regulators probing Facebook for violations of antitrust law have considered seeking a preliminary injunction against the company, aiming to halt the tech giant’s plans to integrate its social-networking app with the other services it owns. “At a time when Facebook is under scrutiny for its monopoly power and its abuses of its power, to say it’s going to integrate these three platforms is just another monopoly grab,” Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard told him.
Read MoreTony Romm of The Washington Post reports on the federal investigation of Facebook’s antitrust violations and quotes Sally Hubbard, director of enforcement strategy at Open Markets Institute, opposing Facebook’s talk of integrating Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Read MoreRoger Parloff reports in Yahoo! Finance about the antitrust backlash against Big Tech and credits Open Markets Institute for elevating the issue and changing the debate.
Read MoreOn Yahoo Finance, Roger Parloff tells the story of how America has come to a turning point in its views of antitrust. He tracks the origins of the progressive neo-Brandesian movement and how key figures have played leading roles in igniting the Big Tech antitrust backlash in Washington including Tim Wu, Barry Lynn, Lina Khan, Matt Stoller, and Luther Lowe. Parloff quotes Former FTC chair William E. Kovacic who commented: "In five years, Barry and his group have changed the debate. They’ve gone from being a largely unnoticed fringe body of commentary to being at the very center of the debate.”
Read MoreDavid Streitfeld reports in The New York Times about the grassroots movement to stop Amazon and quotes Barry Lynn of Open Markets Institute on the Athena coalition.
Read MoreAhead of Thanksgiving, Open Markets' Food & Power reporter Claire Kelloway speaks with Bloomberg law about consolidation among poultry producers and how price fixing is only made easier for them. "Turkey, an $18 billion industry, is one of the lone proteins not subject to any publicly known federal investigation or private suit" reports Bloomberg Law "Even though many top U.S. turkey producers, such as Cargill Inc. and Tyson Foods, allegedly sought to fix prices of other foods.
Read MoreThe Hill reports on Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), chairman of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, pressing top officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over Google's proposed acquisition of fitness tracking company Fitbit. Cicilline cited a letter by Open Markets and eight other public interest submitted to the FTC calling for the acquisition to be blocked.
Read MoreWIRED's Gilad Edelman writes that Google's moves into health data will test how serious antitrust enforcers are about privacy issues. “These promises about what they’re going to do with data in the context of merger approvals deserve absolutely no weight,” Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard told WIRED. “Especially when you’re talking about a company that has persistently violated the privacy laws, been repeatedly fined—a persistent recidivist when it comes to privacy violations.”
Read MoreWhat is antitrust? Quartz's Alison Griswold provides a brief primer on the history of the term antitrust. "Standard Oil is often referred to as the first trust," she writes. "And the legal mechanism Rockefeller pioneered paved the way for an unprecedented period of monopolization in the US." She cites Open Markets Fellow Matt Stoller's new book, Goliath: The 100 Year War Between Monopoly and Democracy.
Read MoreA “trust” is a group of firms or industries organized to concentrate power, and reduce or eliminate competition. The model developed in the 1880s, as burgeoning oil baron John D. Rockefeller sought to consolidate his holdings across state borders by placing stock from different properties into a single entity known as a trust, Open Markets Institute fellow Matt Stoller explains in his new book, Goliath.
Read MoreThe New Republic's Maureen Tkacik writes the story of "WeWork's Adam Neumann and the great game of asset immolation." She cites Open Markets Fellow Matt Stoller's latest book, Goliath: The 100 Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy.
Read MoreThe New York Times' Cecilia Kang and David McCabe report that California said Facebook had resisted or ignored dozens of requests for documents and internal correspondence about the company’s handling of personal data. Sarah Miller, the deputy director of the Open Markets Institute, one of the groups that asked to speak with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, expressed hopefulness that Mr. Becerra would join the antitrust investigations into the tech companies.
Read MoreWashington Post's Rachel Siegel and Tony Romm report on Google's $2.1 billion acquisition of smartwatch maker Fitbit. Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard told them that regulators has been "slow to the game" when it comes to looking at how data fortifies the monopoly power of corporations such as Google. “That’s a source of their dominance,” Hubbard said.
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