The Consumer Welfare Standard: From The Antitrust Paradox to Hipster Antitrust
Recently, there have been a series of challenges aimed at “reinvigorating” antitrust enforcement agencies and institutions and calling into question the economic approach to antitrust. The “Hipster Antitrust” movement represents a departure from the longstanding nonpartisan consensus that rigorous economic analysis is a key ingredient to robust competition policy – a consensus that finds its roots in Robert Bork’s, The Antitrust Paradox. This latest challenge to the modern antitrust paradigm calls for the rejection of the consumer welfare standard and the incorporation of non-economic considerations, such as fairness, income inequality, and other broader social issues, into standard antitrust analysis. This symposium will highlight these current debates in the context of their application in merger policy, common ownership and passive investment, vertical restraints, and the goals of antitrust. Participants will discuss the new challenges to the modern consumer welfare oriented antitrust paradigm and suggest any necessary changes moving forward for antitrust enforcement.
| 8:00 AM - 8:45 AM |
Registration Founders Hall Multipurpose Room |
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| 8:50 AM - 9:00 AM |
Welcome and Opening Remarks All Panels will be held in Founders Hall Auditorium Tommy Rucker, Symposium Editor, George Mason Law Review Gregory Conko, Interim Executive Director, Law & Economics Center |
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| 9:00 AM - 9:25 AM |
Fireside Chat SPEAKERS INCLUDE: The Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg, Senior Judge, US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and Professor of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School Herbert Hovenkamp, James G. Dinan University Professor, University of Pennsylvania Law School and Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania |
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| 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM |
Panel 1: Merger Policy and the Consumer Welfare Standard: Time for a Change? PANELISTS: Wayne Dale Collins, Of Counsel, Shearman & Sterling LLP Paul Denis, Partner, Dechert LLP William A. Galston, Ezra K. Zilkha Chair and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution Michael Kades, Director of Markets and Competition Policy, Washington Center for Equitable Growth Howard Shelanski, Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center MODERATOR: Bruce C. McCulloch, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer |
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| 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM |
Panel 2: Common Ownership and Passive Investments: The Next Frontier for Section 7? PANELISTS: Susan A. Creighton, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Jonathan Klick, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School Daniel P. O’Brien, Executive Vice President, Compass Lexecon Isabel Tecu, Associate Principal, Charles River Associates MODERATOR: Thomas A. Lambert, Wall Chair in Corporate Law and Governance and Professor of Law, University of Missouri School of Law |
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| 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM |
Luncheon Keynote Address Keynote Speaker: Luke M. Froeb, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics, Antitrust Division, US Department of Justice |
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| 1:30 PM - 2:10 PM |
China Antitrust Roundtable SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Roger P. Alford, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for International Affairs, Antitrust Division, US Department of Justice The Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg, Senior Judge, US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and Professor of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School Abbot (Tad) Lipsky, Jr., Director of Competition Advocacy Program, Global Antitrust Institute and Adjunct Professor of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School James F. Rill, Senior Counsel, Baker Botts LLP Jianzhong Shi, Professor of Law, Vice President of China University of Political Science and Law, Member of Expert Advisory Group of Anti-Monopoly Commission under the State Council of China Joshua D. Wright, University Professor and Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School |
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| 2:20 PM - 3:30 PM |
Panel 3: Revisiting Vertical Antitrust Enforcement PANELISTS: Jonathan B. Baker, Research Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law Jonathan B. Sallet, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP Michael G. Vita, Acting Director of the Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission Paul Yde, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP MODERATOR: Bruce H. Kobayashi, Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School |
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| 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM |
Panel 4: What are the Goals of Antitrust? What Should They Be? PANELISTS: Allen Grunes, Founder, The Konkurrenz Group Diana L. Moss, President, American Antitrust Institute Jan Rybnicek, Senior Associate, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP Hal Singer, Principal, Economists Incorporated, Senior Fellow, Regulatory Studies Center, The George Washington University, and Adjunct Professor, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University MODERATOR: Joshua D. Wright, University Professor and Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School |
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| 5:00 PM - 5:10 PM |
Closing Remarks |
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| 5:10 PM - 6:10 PM |
Reception |