Ownership

The seemingly endless review of the proposed Sinclair Broadcast Group-Tribune Media merger doesn’t show signs of being wrapped up anytime soon. And that’s fine with the cable and satellite operators opposed to the deal, who are looking to block it, and maybe also get some help from a federal court in the effort.

T-Mobile is getting advice from Corey Lewandowski, the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, as part of a lobbying effort to help the telecommunications company secure federal approval for its proposed takeover of Sprint. T-Mobile said it hired Turnberry Solutions in August. “Corey Lewandowski is now affiliated with that firm and they have offered perspective to T-Mobile on a variety of topics, including the pending transaction,” the company said. According to documents,  Lewandowski receives a cut of the fees paid to the lobbying firm on the T-Mobile contract.

Some observers note a decline in competition in American industry; fewer new firms are entering the market, and markets are becoming more concentrated. Federal and state agencies can devise regulations to catalyze competition. Federal and state agencies can use different types of rules to spur competition, including deregulation, which removes rules that discourage new firms, or switching price rules, which makes it easier for consumers to try a new service provider (such as the rule that phone customers can keep their phone number when changing service providers).

This paper recommends that dominant online platforms be required to provide their users with “due process,” that is, procedural protections that ensure fairness, when the platforms wish to take an action that may be detrimental to the user. It argues that the principles of due process are a way to ensure that individuals are treated fairly by large institutions -- whether they are public or private. It recommends a robust set of procedural protections adopted from leading legal scholars and proposes a way of determining "dominance" that is informed by the history of communications law.

Seattle (WA) levied an annual tax of about $50 million on big companies recently to help solve the city's homeless problem. The tax was watered down from the original proposal but it was controversial and pitted the city against its most powerful corporate resident, Amazon.com. Now the action moves to Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.

Let’s remember that the core notion of democracy underlying antitrust is the value of individual opportunity, free from the workings of political or economic power. Individual choice in democratic elections and individual choice in competitive markets share an intellectual legacy. These democratic roots of antitrust are best served by upholding the ability of antitrust enforcement to carry out its duties free from the jousting and scuffling of day-to-day politics.

Comcast plans to outbid Disney for Fox’s movie and TV studios, its cable networks and its stake in Hulu, as Comcast announced today it’s in “advanced stages of preparing an offer.” Murdoch, who heads Fox, already turned down a proposal from Comcast late last year in favor of Disney, despite Comcast’s bid that was 16 percent higher.  Now that it’s out in the open, a bidding war is sure to ensue, and Comcast and Disney will offer their respective spins. Here’s what to expect:

Facebook is making three important announcements on false news. The first new announcement is a request for proposals from academics eager to study false news on the platform.  The second announcement is the launch of a public education campaign that will utilize the top of Facebook’s home page, perhaps the most valuable real estate on the internet.

[Commentary] In a few days, the nations of the European Union take the first step to establish a New Digital World Order when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect on May 25. For the first time, government has stepped in on a comprehensive basis to oversee the unregulated collection of personal information through the internet. Unfortunately, it is not the United States of America that is leading the world in protecting personal rights. Instead, the Old World is leading the New World.