The Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") recently announced a new "market power" test to analyze whether forbearance is appropriate under Section 10 of the Communications Act. As we explain, the standard for forbearance set forth by the FCC effectively renders, perhaps inadvertently,...

In this paper we will examine the issue of ownership unbundling and forced divestiture remedies imposed in a series of recent competition law cases of the energy market - examined in other papers - in relation to the possible existence of a series of legal obstacles. These energy market...

In December 2020, the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”) was proposed. It was prepared by the European Commission (“EC”) following several years of work. The DMA attempts to improve “fairness” and contestability” in the digital sector. The DMA acknowledges that some companies designated...

Recent years have seen a rediscovery of the fact that a healthy financial and economic system cannot be based on the lowest common behavioural denominator of what is technically permissible under the black letter of the law. Something more is needed – variously described as ‘sound culture',...

In response to a request for comment from the Federal Trade Commission, this report is divided into three parts:• The FTC's continuing leadership in consumer protection for Internet access• Competition and consumer protection in a changing communications industry• Competition and consumer...

In response to the increasing popularity and economic impact of companies in the Internet ecosystem, the Federal Trade Commission is being implored with vocal but factually vacant calls to revisit its approach to antitrust, and in particular market power, barriers to entry and anti-competitive...

Whether it was the intended strategy or not, Google Fiber, which has now "paused" new deployments, agitated incumbent providers, regulators, and investors to change their approach and policies on gig-speed Internet, initiating a "game of Gigs" that broke a stalemate in investments in...

In 1999, the FCC largely deregulated middle-mile or "special access" enterprise communications services, resulting in explosive growth of new competitors using new technologies, including cable, fiber-optics, and high-speed Ethernet loops. But in recent years the agency has expressed increased...

As the EU begins the long and painful process of reversing two decades of interventionist policies that failed to promote either broadband investment, competition or adoption, the experience of the largely deregulated U.S. market provides a natural comparison. This article looks at the widely...