Hearing But Not Listening: Comparative Competition Law and the DOJ Monopoly Report

Abstract

The Department of Justice ("DOJ") monopoly report is enormously disappointing for a number of reasons. The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") was wise to participate in this important project, but equally wise to distance itself from the final work product. The final report represents a serious effort, but reads in too many places like a justification for a record of inaction by the DOJ and an attempt to lock in future administrations to a similar course.

I suspect that the report will achieve neither of these goals and hope that the DOJ's Antitrust Division of the next administration rejoins the FTC in bringing both innovative and traditional monopolization investigations and cases where appropriate.

Keywords: Department of Justice, DOJ, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, monopoly, monopolization, single firm conduct, unilateral conduct, refusal to deal, essential facilities, EU, competition law, antitrust, comparative law, comparative competition law

JEL Classification: D42, K21, L12, L40, L41