A Charter for a Clean, Democratic Future
A Charter for a Clean, Democratic Future

While the world has failed to make significant progress in combating climate change over the past decade, the prospect for real action looks very promising today. Proponents of a Green New Deal aim not to nudge the current energy economy toward carbon neutrality but to restructure the production, distribution, and use of energy. Even as it represents a break from the impoverished political imagination of the (still ongoing) neoliberal era, the Green New Deal draws on a rich legal and historical template for transforming our energy economy and deepen democracy.

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Op-EdsSandeep Vaheesan2019, May 2019, Competition Law & Philosophy, Sandeep Vaheesan
The Hill: Co-founder's call to break up Facebook energizes its critics
The Hill: Co-founder's call to break up Facebook energizes its critics

The Hill's Harper Neidig speaks with Open Markets Deputy Director Sarah Miller about how a groundbreaking op-ed by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes on The New York Times is making it "harder and harder to defend Facebook maintaining its monopoly power." In the op-ed, Hughes said that he was worried about the amount of power Facebook had amassed over the world’s communications and how Mark Zuckerberg, his former roommate and co-founder, had complete control over the company.

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ClippingsOpen MarketsMay 2019, 2019, Facebook
The Current: Facebook has become one of world's 'most dangerous monopolies,' says expert
The Current: Facebook has become one of world's 'most dangerous monopolies,' says expert

Facebook has become "one of the world's most dangerous monopolies" and needs to be dismantled, Open Markets Deputy Director Sarah Miller tells CBC's The Current podcast. In light of a groundbreaking op-ed by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes on The New York Times, CBC interviews Miller about Facebook's monopoly power and why US regulators should move to hold Mark Zuckerberg accountable and break-up the corporation.

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ClippingsOpen MarketsFacebook, May 2019, 2019
Facebook is violating our privacy. Where are the cops?
Facebook is violating our privacy. Where are the cops?

In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission settled charges with Facebook that the social networking giant “deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public”. Today, the company is again in hot water for, among other things, misusing private user data, failing to stop the spread of fake news and enabling the distribution of toxic and violent multimedia.

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Op-EdsOpen Markets2019, May 2019, Facebook
Facebook's new plan doesn't protect your privacy, and neither does the FTC
Facebook's new plan doesn't protect your privacy, and neither does the FTC

Facebook didn't get where it is today by protecting your privacy. The company made $56 billion in 2018, in part by tracking people both on and off its platform and then selling targeted advertisements based on that surveillance. Yet when Facebook announced a shift to a "privacy-focused communications platform" in March and unveiled a redesign toward private messaging at its F8 developers conference on Tuesday, Facebook's stock value did not even dip. How could that be, if surveillance is essential to Facebook's business model?

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Op-EdsSally Hubbard2019, May 2019, Facebook
BuzzFeed News Opinion: No More Payoffs For Layoffs
BuzzFeed News Opinion: No More Payoffs For Layoffs

Open Markets fellow Matthew Stoller and Deputy Director Sarah Miller published an op-ed on BuzzFeed News explaining that while corporate megamergers often result in thousands of job cuts, corporate executives, on the other hand, are rewarded with sweet multi-million dollar golden parachutes to sell their companies in what amounts to a form of "normalized corruption," which they call on Congress to eliminate.

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Op-EdsOpen Markets2019, May 2019, Labor
Key Judge Warns of Political Danger of Monopoly, Calls for Revival of Antitrust Tools
Key Judge Warns of Political Danger of Monopoly, Calls for Revival of Antitrust Tools

An influential federal appellate judge last week expressed great concern about the growing power of tech platforms, including Google and Facebook, and said that anti-monopoly enforcers and courts may have been “too hasty” in abandoning two key traditional tools of antitrust law – the essential facilities doctrine and predatory pricing law.

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BlogsOpen Markets2019, May 2019, Competition Law & Philosophy
Open Markets Defends Private Antitrust Enforcement in Medical Monopolization Case; Applauds DOJ for Siding with Plaintiffs
Open Markets Defends Private Antitrust Enforcement in Medical Monopolization Case; Applauds DOJ for Siding with Plaintiffs

Open Markets has filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs appeal in a case against syringe-manufacturing giant Becton, Dickinson & Co. (Becton). The plaintiffs, who are healthcare providers, allege Becton has raised the price and lowered the supply of conventional syringes, safety syringes, and safety IV catheters.

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Press ReleasesOpen Markets2019, April 2019
Restoring Antimonopoly Through Bright-Line Rules
Restoring Antimonopoly Through Bright-Line Rules

The “consumer welfare” approach to antimonopoly is the main contributor to the extreme and dangerous concentrations of power that Americans face today. In place of this vague, subjective, easily manipulated, and fundamentally corrupt framework, we propose a system of simple rules that is true to the original American approach to building and protecting an open and democratic society.

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Op-EdsOpen Markets2019, April 2019, Competition Law & Philosophy, Labor
Amicus Brief - Open Markets Filed to Seventh Circuit Court in Support of Plaintiffs in Marion Diagnostic Center v. Becton, Dickinson & Co.
Amicus Brief - Open Markets Filed to Seventh Circuit Court in Support of Plaintiffs in Marion Diagnostic Center v. Becton, Dickinson & Co.

Open Markets Institute filed an amicus brief to the Seventh Circuit Court in support of the plaintiffs in Marion Diagnostic Center v. Becton, Dickinson & Co. The plaintiffs, who are health care providers, allege that Becton, Dickinson & Co. illegally dominated the markets for conventional syringes, safety syringes, and safety IV catheters.

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Amicus Briefs & PetitionsOpen Markets2019, April 2019
Restoring Anti-monopoly Through Bright-Line Rules
Restoring Anti-monopoly Through Bright-Line Rules

Open Markets Institute on ProMarket proposes a system of simple rules that complies with the traditional American approach to protecting and restructuring an open and democratic society, With the five key planks discussed in this article, OMI offers an opportunity to reinstate antimonopoly through this bright-line initiative. With clear objective to reimpose America’s open democracy, the Open Markets team declares, “From the first, effective antimonopoly policy has relied on simple, bright-line rules. Today again, a comprehensive set of simple structural limitations— implemented through legislation, regulation, and policy guidance—is critical to protecting our democracy and our most fundamental liberties.”

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Op-EdsOpen MarketsApril 2019, Secondary Feature, 2019, Democracy & Ideology