Publications
This Open Markets Institute report analyzes the history of repair markets in the United States, the tactics that manufacturers use to restrict repair, the consequences of restricted repair markets, and the antitrust and legal tools available to crack open cornered repair markets.
Read MoreOpen Markets authors Claire Kelloway, Daniel Hanley, and the director of U.S. PIRG’s campaign for Right to Repair, Nathan Proctor, discuss what we can do to build more open and resilient repair markets.
Read MoreOne of the most reckless profiteering trends in recent decades is dominant corporations’ use of repair restrictions to force consumers to use original manufacturers’ repair services. To document and address this issue, the Open Markets Institute today released Fixing America: Breaking Manufacturers’ Aftermarket Monopoly and Restoring Consumers’ Right to Repair.
Read MoreOpen Markets strategic counselor Caroline Fredrickson references a book, The Rule of Five, by Richard J. Lazarus when analyzing recent decisions made by the Supreme Court focusing on environmental protections.
Read MoreOpen Markets Details Our Proposal to Ban Mergers During the COVID-19 Pandemic and How the Ventilator Shortage Demonstrates How Monopolists Make Us Unsafe
Read MoreThe FTC has proposed to settle a market allocation scheme among three leading rent-to-own operators with a "do not break the law again" order and also opted not to challenge an illegal interlocking directorate arrangement among two of them. The rent-to-own industry is a part of the fringe financial sector (think payday and title lenders, pawn shops, and check cashers) that preys on the working poor squeezed by low and volatile incomes and denied access to conventional credit.
Read MoreThe Open Markets Institute calls on Congress, the Trump administration, and federal and state law enforcement agencies to use their various powers to impose an immediate ban on all mergers and acquisitions by any corporation with more than $100 million in annual revenue, and by any financial institution or equity fund with more than $100 million in capitalization.
Read MoreOpen Markets Details Our Webpage on Supply Chain Monopoly and Systems Fragility, Sally Hubbard’s Recent Testimony to the U.S. Senate, and Explain Our Comment to the USDA
Read MoreOMI director of enforcement strategy Sally Hubbard published an article on ProMarket, deconstructing the manner in which Tech Giants utilize their “platform privilege” to give preferential treatment to their own products and services.
Read MoreThe Open Markets team has long been the leader in America in highlighting the ways in which concentration of production capacity can make industrial, financial, and information systems subject to catastrophic crashes.
Read MoreBarry Lynn publishes an article discussing straightforward politics of industrial interdependence and dependence, in a system marked by extreme concentrations of industrial capacity.
Read MoreIn a comment filed with the USDA, the Open Markets Institute urges the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to curtail meatpackers’ abusive tactics and to stand up to judicial overreach by reviving the Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA).
Read MoreOpen Markets Details Our FTC Comment Regarding the Proposed Vertical Merger Guidelines and Present Our Views on the Supreme Court’s 2018 Decision Ohio v. American Express
Read MoreThe Open Markets Institute and our allies agree there is a pressing need for new vertical merger guidelines. The existing guidelines were fundamentally flawed when they were first introduced by the Reagan Administration in 1984. OMI and its allies call on the FTC and the DOJ to draft new guidelines consistent with the text and purpose of the Clayton Act and the DOJ’s 1968 Merger Guidelines.
Read MoreOpen Markets recognizes the value of a vibrant, well-staffed, and aggressive FTC to enforce the antitrust laws and promote vigorous competition. However, Sen. Hawley’s plan at best misses the mark and at worst would undermine the goals of the commission. Two aspects of his proposal are especially dangerous.
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