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Perma.cc archive of https://www.ftc.gov/reports/strategy-predation-antitrust-analysis created on 2021-11-03 20:44:47+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://www.ftc.gov/reports/strategy-predation-antitrust-analysis created on 2021-11-03 20:44:47+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://www.ftc.gov/reports/strategy-predation-antitrust-analysis created on 2021-11-03 20:44:47+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://www.ftc.gov/reports/strategy-predation-antitrust-analysis created on 2021-11-03 20:44:47+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://www.ftc.gov/reports/strategy-predation-antitrust-analysis created on 2021-11-03 20:44:47+00:00.

After roughly 15 years of merger control application in the Federal Republic of Germany a <I>reassessment of the significance</I> of this instrument of antitrust policy seems necessary. This is particularly so in view of the <I>reorientation of merger</I> <I>control policy in the United States</I> which has been - in its original version - the model for the German merger control system.<BR> Concerning merger control, the reorientation is characterized by the notion that the <I>structure-conduct-performance paradigm</I> which has dominated U.S. antitrust for a quarter of a century is imprecise or even incorrect and «that bigness in business does not necessarily mean badness.»<BR> This makes the fundamental question arise of whether the German merger control system is still up to date in terms of the underlying market theory and of whether the <I>German Act Against</I> <I>Restraints of Competition</I> needs a reorientation towards aspects of market conduct and performance instead of market structure by means of a Fifth Amendment.

XXI, 302 Seiten

XXI, 302 Seiten

XXI, 302 Seiten

XXI, 302 Seiten

1- INTRODUCTION         Metaverse is a phenomenon that technology companies have made significant investments in, and media experts, industry, academics, policy makers, and legislators have paid special attention to it. (OFcom, 2023:3). Metaverse was specifically mentioned from October 2021. On the mentioned date, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he will change the name of his social media company, Facebook, to Meta Platforms (Meta for short). In addition, he announced that he will spend billions of dollars in the coming years to make Metaverse a reality (Buchholz et al, 2022:313 ).        The global Metaverse market was valued at $234.04 billion in 2022 and is expected to increase from $416.02 billion in 2023 to $3,409.29 billion in 2027. Undoubtedly, companies operating in such a market, which generate significant amounts of revenue or have the ability to generate it, are tempted to make anti-competitive agreements for economic gain, abuse dominant positions, and Reduce competition through mergers and acquisitions. Several large technology companies have made large investments in the Metaverse and thus have real incentives to prevent new competitors from entering this space (Delevaux, 2022:3 ).        What was said above indicates an important event in the field of competition: the new space of Metaverse is being formed, in which, in any case, issues related to this branch of law will emerge, and the care of the competition authorities and the regulation of this space. Establishing Metaverse and making it attractive for users requires large private investment, which, without a doubt, investors will seek to recover. Antitrust law recognizes that early investors and their sponsored companies have a legitimate interest in profiting from the technologies they invented. Despite this, according to the teachings of the economics of competition, the possibility of deviation of markets with multilateral digital platforms in which network effects are particularly powerful is higher. In addition, some enterprises active in the Metaverse will have unique access to users' personal data and its resources, which makes it more difficult for competitors to enter or develop (Crauthers, 2022:2) .        Two views have been proposed regarding Metaverse: According to the first view, there will be a global digital platform (ITU, 2023:3). In this way, a company will create a single Metaverse that is used by a large number of consumers. In this case, the possibility of the said company having a dominant position will be high, and therefore it will have a special duty not to abuse the market power. The mentioned company is required to carefully examine the effect of its actions on end users and businesses. According to the second view, it is predicted that instead of a single Metaverse, hundreds of mostly connected Metaverses will be formed. In this sense, Metaverses will operate in the form of a collective space, compatibility of which is one of its essential features (ITU, 2023:4). Assuming the existence of multiple Metaverses, there will be a possibility of abusing the dominant position by the company that has it .        In any case, the Metaverse, which is referred to as a market (Council of the European Union, 2022:5) and consists of a diverse set of platforms and digital ecosystems (Schöbel, Leimeister) , 2023:1), has the capacity to become a place for showing power and exclusivity of the dominant platforms. As a result, one of the most important issues of competition law is the abuse of the dominant economic situation, which generally means having considerable power in the market (OECD, 2020:2). This unilateral anti-competitive behavior is influenced by the characteristics of Metaverse, as one of the digital markets, which causes the competitive analysis in this market to be different from traditional markets. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the characteristics of the Metaverse from this point of view .        With regard to what was said, in this article, we will first define the term Metaverse in order to explain the topic, and then we will examine the role of competition in this market and the importance of organizing it. Then, we will discuss the important issue of market power and features of the Metaverse that affect market power. Previously, valuable works have been written about the legal issues related to the Metaverse (Akefi Ghaziani et al:2022:142 et seq, Moradi Berelian:2022:363 et seq, Darabpour:2023:65 et seq, Latif Zade, Ghabooli Dorafshan: 2023-a:349 et seq, Latif Zade, Ghabooli Dorafshan:2023-b:165 et seq) in which issues other than competition law are examined. An important article has also been written about competition rights in digital platforms (Kadkhodaei et al: 2023:7 et seq) and in it, major competition issues related to digital platforms have been discussed.     2- PURPOSE The purpose of this article is to study the important issue of market power in Metaverse and explain the effects of Metaverse characteristics on antitrust analysis of market power in this new market.   3- METHODOLOGY The authors have adopted a descriptive-analytical method to study the implications of Metaverse characteristics for the antitrust analysis of market power. 4- FINDINGS Metaverse is a new market where digital platforms operate. In order to flourish, this market needs competition between existing platforms and the provision of conditions for the entry of new competitors. In the Metaverse market, it is probable that undertakings abuse their dominant economic position. Verification of this unilateral behavior, which is an example of anti-competitive practices, requires examining the market power of the platforms. The results of this article, written in a descriptive-analytical way, with the aim of investigating how the characteristics of Metaverse affect market power, show that the characteristics of Metaverse, as a digital market, influence market power in a way that makes it different from the market power in the traditional business environment and should be taken into consideration in the antitrust analysis of the behavior of the companies in the Metaverse. The characteristics affecting the market power in the Metaverse include network effects, being based on data, economies of scale, the market being two or multi-sided and the existence of digital ecosystems. These features give the dominant undertakings such market power that they can monopolize the market and prevent the entry of new competitors . . Competition in Metaverse, as one of the digital markets, motivates existing companies and new companies to create new technologies and improve business processes. Competition encourages investment and prompts companies to improve the quality of their products (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2022:27). In a competitive environment, the actors in the field of production and distribution of goods and services will continuously seek to maintain their survival (Sadeghi Moghaddam & Ghafari Farsani, 2011:115), but with the lack of competition, the existing companies have no incentive to invest in research and development. This, in turn, reduces the pace of innovation in this industry. In this case, the slow changes whose purpose is to maintain the income flow of existing companies replace revolutionary new products or services. Undoubtedly, such a situation gradually destroys the motivation of investors to invest and compete with new companies that intend to challenge the dominance of existing companies through direct competition. What remains are areas that are called killing zones with almost no competition (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2022:27). In Iranian law, according to paragraph 15 of Article 1 of the Law on the Implementation of the General Policies of Principle 44 of the Constitution, the dominant economic situation is "a situation in the market in which the ability to determine the price, the amount of supply or demand for goods or services, or the terms of the contract is at the disposal of one or several real or legal persons". The ability in this article is the market power, which will be necessary when invoking Article 45 of the Law on the Implementation of the General Policies of Principle 44 of the Constitution, whose subject is the abuse of a dominant economic situation. Of course, paragraph i of Article 45 does not define this type of abuse and is limited to stating some examples, which has been criticized by some experts because "although stating examples can be effective in identifying an issue, it is not enough; Especially with the assumption that the examples are illustrative and not exclusive" (Abdipour, 2009:135). Some experts believe that market power in the Metaverse may come mainly from network effects. Network works are conditions in which the value of a product, service or platform depends on the number of buyers, sellers or users who use it. Normally, with the increase in the number of buyers, sellers or users, the network effects and the value of the offered product will be higher. The willingness to pay, supply or use a product, service or platform increases with the increase in the number of buyers, sellers or users (Congressional Research Service, 2022:21). Network effects describe how the use of a product or service by one user affects the value of the product for other users (OECD, 2022:3). In fact, network effects increase the value of a product, parallel to the increase of its users (Congressional Research Service, 2023:6). Network effects, as seen in digital markets, do not exist in traditional markets and industries (Kadkhodaei et al:2023:17). Digital markets, such as Metaverse, are often based on data, and in many cases, data has become a factor to strengthen market power. Successful companies in data-based digital markets benefit from a significant advantage that comes from the speed, variety and volume of big data. The term big data is not comprehensively defined, but basically it means high amounts of different types of data that are produced at high speed from multiple sources, and its control and analysis requires new and stronger processors and algorithms. The meaning of the economies of scale is that the increase in production volume, due to fixed costs, leads to a decrease in the production cost of each unit (Autorité de la concurrence, CNIL, 2023:fn.11). One can say that digital goods and services, typically, are produced by spending a significant fixed cost but without variable cost or with a small variable cost. In other words, the cost of production is very low compared to the number of customers. Therefore, digital companies, after being established, can grow quickly by expanding their activities to new users with minimal cost (Petropoulos, 2020:5). Although this aspect of digital markets such as the Metaverse exists in all markets (and large factories or retailers are more efficient than their smaller competitors), the digital world maximizes economies of scale and this can result in a considerable competitive advantage for dominant companies (Crémer et al, 2019:2) and create serious obstacles for the entry of potential competitors (WTO, 2023:3). In many digital markets, such as Metaverse, bilateral or multilateral platforms are often the main actors (OECD, 2022:4). These digital platforms serve both sides of the market, i.e. consumers and business suppliers who have gathered to exchange products or services, and sometimes exploit them (APEC Competition Policy and Law Group, 2022:7). The main business model of platforms is to facilitate interaction between different groups of users (buyers and sellers or potential customers and advertisers). Therefore, it is said that platforms operate in multilateral markets in which each group of users is considered a market party (Murati, 2021:21). Platforms provide a digital infrastructure for various services such as shopping centers (Amazon), application stores (Apple), social networking sites (Facebook) and search engines (Google) (UNCTAD, 2019: 2). Competition in the digital economy is increasingly competition between ecosystems. In the digital realm, ecosystem is used in two separate concepts: A- multi-product ecosystem, which consists of complementary goods or services that make up a package that the final consumer can consume, and B- multilateral ecosystems that consist of a group of independent actors who cooperate through specific complementary products to provide a product or service or a package of products and services that have been produced collectively (Salan , 2022:9). In this sense, digital ecosystems enable efficient interaction between producers, content providers, developers, consumers, and other users that contribute to business value creation (online or even offline). Digital ecosystems, make it possible, for example, to produce, distribute, market, sell or deliver products or services through electronic means, sell and transport digital goods through traditional means, and transfer or store information as an independent service. (Petropoulos, 2020:2).     5- CONCLUSION Metaverse, which is known as one of the digital markets, consists of platforms and digital ecosystems. This new business environment is at the beginning and its expansion and dynamics depend on the competition between the existing platforms and ecosystems and the economic enterprises that intend to enter it. The lack of competition in the Metaverse market, which requires the dynamism and constant efforts of companies, leads to their withdrawal from innovation and production of products and providing new and more desirable services, which will result in a decrease in the welfare of the society. In such a case, there will be a possibility of the companies dominating the market to monopolize (according to American law) or abuse their dominant economic position (according to European Union and Iranian law). For this reason, the intervention of the legislator and the authorities in charge of the competition in order to organize the competition and prevent this anti-competitive behavior from occurring or applying the appropriate remedies and sanctions is necessary. Monopoly or abuse of a dominant economic position in the Metaverse happens when the company has a significant amount of market power. Therefore, establishing the market power has a decisive role in concluding that the unilateral behavior of an economic enterprise is anti-competitive. It is obvious that before examining the presence or absence of market power, it is necessary to define the relevant market, and due to the newness of the Metaverse, providing such a definition will not be as simple as defining the market in the traditional space. In addition, the digital Metaverse market has features that affect the market power and are considered barriers to entering the market. The network effects that the digital platforms that make up the Metaverse have is an important factor in strengthening their market power. These effects represent the increase in the value of one side of the platform with the increase of users of the same section or the section related to it. Another feature that affects the power in the Metaverse market is that this market is based on huge amounts of user data that is collected by dominant platforms and the production and supply of goods and services and even determining their prices according to taste of every customer. Economies of scale and economies of territory also play a role in strengthening the market power of companies that dominate Metaverse, because after spending the fixed cost of establishing the platform, they can offer their products to more customers or territory with little cost or expand their activity to markets adjacent to the main product. Due to the two-sided or multi-sided nature of the platforms present in the Metaverse, their owners obtain valuable information from the participants on each side of the market, which are considered an important source for economic power and earning more money. Finally, since it is possible to establish digital ecosystems in Metaverse, which can include complementary products or different sets of users, companies that have their own business model based on digital ecosystems, can increase their market power by preventing competitors from accessing data or leveraging their power in one market in order to strengthen their power in another market. In Iran, sooner or later, anti-competitive cases related to Metaverse will be raised in the Competition Council, and as a practical solution, it is recommended that the features affecting the market power of Metaverse, which were examined in this article, be used when citing paragraph Article 45 of the Law on Implementation of General Policies of Principle 44 of the Constitution should be taken into consideration by the Council.  

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:Ontario will offer rapid COVID-19 tests to some schools and child-care settings to help ensure students can continue with in-person learning as much as possible, the province's chief medical officer of health said this morning.Tests will only be provided to unvaccinated, asymptomatic children who are not considered high-risk contacts of a positive COVID-19 case, Moore said. In Ontario, children 11 and under are not yet eligible to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.GUEST: Ryan Imgrund, Biostatistician- Avoiding future lockdowns is Ontario's \"ultimate goal,\" as laid out Monday in a throne speech that emphasized recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but made no mention of child care or education.Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell delivered Premier Doug Ford's throne speech, marking the start of a new legislative session and the opportunity to present a renewed agenda eight months ahead of the next provincial election.The speech, which the Opposition critics slammed as short on details and vision, focused largely on what the government has done - or has already promised to do - to support the health-care and long-term care systems during the pandemic.GUEST: Andrew Brander, Senior Consultant with Crestview Strategies and former Director of Communications for the Ontario Government-On Monday, a global service outage hit Facebook and took down the world's ubiquitous social network , along with Instagram and WhatsApp. The outage, which affects billions of people, occurred just as Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's amended antitrust complaint against the company accusing it of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp to consolidate anti-competitive market power. The day before the outage, on Sunday, the Facebook whistleblower behind devastating leaks that have roiled the company for weeks revealed themselves on \"60 Minutes\": Frances Haugen, a former product manager. In profiles of Haugen that followed immediately after, one thread constantly revisited was that Haugen did not want to harm Facebook, only fix it. Click HERE to read the full article.GUEST: Edward Ongweso Jr, Tech and Labour Journalist for Vice

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:Ontario will offer rapid COVID-19 tests to some schools and child-care settings to help ensure students can continue with in-person learning as much as possible, the province's chief medical officer of health said this morning.Tests will only be provided to unvaccinated, asymptomatic children who are not considered high-risk contacts of a positive COVID-19 case, Moore said. In Ontario, children 11 and under are not yet eligible to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.GUEST: Ryan Imgrund, Biostatistician- Avoiding future lockdowns is Ontario's \"ultimate goal,\" as laid out Monday in a throne speech that emphasized recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but made no mention of child care or education.Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell delivered Premier Doug Ford's throne speech, marking the start of a new legislative session and the opportunity to present a renewed agenda eight months ahead of the next provincial election.The speech, which the Opposition critics slammed as short on details and vision, focused largely on what the government has done - or has already promised to do - to support the health-care and long-term care systems during the pandemic.GUEST: Andrew Brander, Senior Consultant with Crestview Strategies and former Director of Communications for the Ontario Government-On Monday, a global service outage hit Facebook and took down the world's ubiquitous social network , along with Instagram and WhatsApp. The outage, which affects billions of people, occurred just as Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's amended antitrust complaint against the company accusing it of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp to consolidate anti-competitive market power. The day before the outage, on Sunday, the Facebook whistleblower behind devastating leaks that have roiled the company for weeks revealed themselves on \"60 Minutes\": Frances Haugen, a former product manager. In profiles of Haugen that followed immediately after, one thread constantly revisited was that Haugen did not want to harm Facebook, only fix it. Click HERE to read the full article.GUEST: Edward Ongweso Jr, Tech and Labour Journalist for Vice

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:Ontario will offer rapid COVID-19 tests to some schools and child-care settings to help ensure students can continue with in-person learning as much as possible, the province's chief medical officer of health said this morning.Tests will only be provided to unvaccinated, asymptomatic children who are not considered high-risk contacts of a positive COVID-19 case, Moore said. In Ontario, children 11 and under are not yet eligible to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.GUEST: Ryan Imgrund, Biostatistician- Avoiding future lockdowns is Ontario's \"ultimate goal,\" as laid out Monday in a throne speech that emphasized recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but made no mention of child care or education.Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell delivered Premier Doug Ford's throne speech, marking the start of a new legislative session and the opportunity to present a renewed agenda eight months ahead of the next provincial election.The speech, which the Opposition critics slammed as short on details and vision, focused largely on what the government has done - or has already promised to do - to support the health-care and long-term care systems during the pandemic.GUEST: Andrew Brander, Senior Consultant with Crestview Strategies and former Director of Communications for the Ontario Government-On Monday, a global service outage hit Facebook and took down the world's ubiquitous social network , along with Instagram and WhatsApp. The outage, which affects billions of people, occurred just as Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's amended antitrust complaint against the company accusing it of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp to consolidate anti-competitive market power. The day before the outage, on Sunday, the Facebook whistleblower behind devastating leaks that have roiled the company for weeks revealed themselves on \"60 Minutes\": Frances Haugen, a former product manager. In profiles of Haugen that followed immediately after, one thread constantly revisited was that Haugen did not want to harm Facebook, only fix it. Click HERE to read the full article.GUEST: Edward Ongweso Jr, Tech and Labour Journalist for Vice

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:Ontario will offer rapid COVID-19 tests to some schools and child-care settings to help ensure students can continue with in-person learning as much as possible, the province's chief medical officer of health said this morning.Tests will only be provided to unvaccinated, asymptomatic children who are not considered high-risk contacts of a positive COVID-19 case, Moore said. In Ontario, children 11 and under are not yet eligible to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.GUEST: Ryan Imgrund, Biostatistician- Avoiding future lockdowns is Ontario's \"ultimate goal,\" as laid out Monday in a throne speech that emphasized recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but made no mention of child care or education.Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell delivered Premier Doug Ford's throne speech, marking the start of a new legislative session and the opportunity to present a renewed agenda eight months ahead of the next provincial election.The speech, which the Opposition critics slammed as short on details and vision, focused largely on what the government has done - or has already promised to do - to support the health-care and long-term care systems during the pandemic.GUEST: Andrew Brander, Senior Consultant with Crestview Strategies and former Director of Communications for the Ontario Government-On Monday, a global service outage hit Facebook and took down the world's ubiquitous social network , along with Instagram and WhatsApp. The outage, which affects billions of people, occurred just as Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's amended antitrust complaint against the company accusing it of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp to consolidate anti-competitive market power. The day before the outage, on Sunday, the Facebook whistleblower behind devastating leaks that have roiled the company for weeks revealed themselves on \"60 Minutes\": Frances Haugen, a former product manager. In profiles of Haugen that followed immediately after, one thread constantly revisited was that Haugen did not want to harm Facebook, only fix it. Click HERE to read the full article.GUEST: Edward Ongweso Jr, Tech and Labour Journalist for Vice

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:Ontario will offer rapid COVID-19 tests to some schools and child-care settings to help ensure students can continue with in-person learning as much as possible, the province's chief medical officer of health said this morning.Tests will only be provided to unvaccinated, asymptomatic children who are not considered high-risk contacts of a positive COVID-19 case, Moore said. In Ontario, children 11 and under are not yet eligible to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.GUEST: Ryan Imgrund, Biostatistician- Avoiding future lockdowns is Ontario's \"ultimate goal,\" as laid out Monday in a throne speech that emphasized recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but made no mention of child care or education.Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell delivered Premier Doug Ford's throne speech, marking the start of a new legislative session and the opportunity to present a renewed agenda eight months ahead of the next provincial election.The speech, which the Opposition critics slammed as short on details and vision, focused largely on what the government has done - or has already promised to do - to support the health-care and long-term care systems during the pandemic.GUEST: Andrew Brander, Senior Consultant with Crestview Strategies and former Director of Communications for the Ontario Government-On Monday, a global service outage hit Facebook and took down the world's ubiquitous social network , along with Instagram and WhatsApp. The outage, which affects billions of people, occurred just as Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's amended antitrust complaint against the company accusing it of acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp to consolidate anti-competitive market power. The day before the outage, on Sunday, the Facebook whistleblower behind devastating leaks that have roiled the company for weeks revealed themselves on \"60 Minutes\": Frances Haugen, a former product manager. In profiles of Haugen that followed immediately after, one thread constantly revisited was that Haugen did not want to harm Facebook, only fix it. Click HERE to read the full article.GUEST: Edward Ongweso Jr, Tech and Labour Journalist for Vice

vii, 286 p. ; 23 cm

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Perma.cc archive of https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3481388 created on 2021-01-23 20:30:10+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3481388 created on 2020-09-28 00:15:46+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3481388 created on 2020-09-28 00:15:46+00:00.

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Includes bibliographical references and index

Perma.cc archive of https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3839631 created on 2021-11-27 00:30:05+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3839631 created on 2021-11-27 00:30:05+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3839631 created on 2021-11-27 00:30:05+00:00.

Perma.cc archive of https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3839631 created on 2021-11-27 00:30:05+00:00.