DOJ Won Antitrust Victory by Arguing Publishing Merger Would Harm Top Authors

  • 📰 truthout
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 48 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 23%
  • Publisher: 68%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

The DOJ used an unusual legal strategy to stop the merger of two major publishing houses — with help from Stephen King.

. But what is new is a monopsony case focused on the highest-paid sellers. The closest analogue available for Judge Pan to cite was a case about two regional California movie theater chains, in which one chain amassed market power for “industry anticipated top-grossing films.

Like highly-paid authors, large publications like ESPN.com and large advertisers like Ford are not the most sympathetic victims. Things are even worse when the victims are ad exchange companies with names unknown to the public. Aware of these potential limits to public and judicial empathy, both lawsuits connect the harms alleged here to consumer welfare. The DOJ alleges that a smaller publishing world would lead to fewer and less diverse titles available for the reading public to consume.

But reading the legal materials, it’s hard not to feel that these arguments are afterthoughts; consumer welfare occupied two out of 160 pages of the DOJ’s brief and three out of 130 pages of the state AGs’ brief. And in truth, theyafterthoughts. What’s really going on here is a fight against consolidation. The government believes that consumers will benefit if it wins this fight, but not in a way that legal analysis is well-suited to evaluate.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 69. in US
 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Hi there, I see that the window to apply for your fellowships has closed but I’m wondering if you’re still taking applicants. I just found out about these. 🤞🏽

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

The DOJ is reportedly investigating rent-setting software company RealPageThe company has been accused of driving up rent. Liberals are always trying to destroy good things.
Source: verge - 🏆 94. / 67 Read more »