• SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The FTC has been in the news for proposing an extremely progressive legal theory of anti-trust called the New Brandeis school. They’ve sued Meta, Google, Microsoft, and many others on anti-trust grounds. Biden appointed the main and most progressive legal theorist behind the movement, Lina Khan, surprising even progressives.

      We probably also need new legislation if and when democrats retake congress, but the will is certainly there if voters will reward it.

      • twisted28@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You said “many” muscular new regulations but can’t list a single one. A lawsuit is not a regulation. Enforcing existing regulations is something that is supposed to be done, and not worthy of praise. The bar for our politicians protecting us is extremely low.

        • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Really you can’t find a single one? What do you think the policies of the FTC in relation to what it will sue over is? It’s a regulation. Because it’s a regulatory agency regulating an industry. I honestly don’t even know what you would want the FTC to do. There is a consensus that they have been surprisingly active.

          • twisted28@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            So they’re enforcing old regulations by suing or they crafted “new” ones like you stated originally?

            • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              I don’t know what you think a “regulation” is, or what you mean by “crafting new ones”. Your question doesn’t make much sense to me.

              If you’re asking in good faith and wanting to learn, not just win an internet argument, let’s get into it. The pro-corporate anti-trust standard since the Reagan years is called the “Consumer Welfare standard”. According to that standard, to simplify, a merger is bad if it leads to market inefficiency or higher prices for consumers. It’s a hyper libertarian standard. It is notoriously hard to prove and has led to massive concentration of the market.

              The New Brandeis School takes a broader look at the market harms, such as harms to the labor market or to market platform choice. That means, to simplify, that a greater range of corporate behavior is deemed unacceptable that we’re previously considered fine. When corporations are found violating the new standard, they are sued by the FTC, and the courts decide the penalty. So your question doesn’t make sense. Change in enforcement regimes is what a regulation is.