tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post7233856065443152622..comments2024-03-28T21:56:51.675-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Ticketmaster -- another target for Trump the trustbuster to trigger progressives?agnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-9768457721354267132016-10-29T09:00:51.574-04:002016-10-29T09:00:51.574-04:00This is a great idea. Antitrust law is funny becau...This is a great idea. Antitrust law is funny because the courts have become a LOT more accepting of monopoly power. But the pace of change has been so slow that most lawyers and judges aren't even aware of it. For example, in the 1966 case of United States vs. Von's Grocery Co., the Department of Justice's antitrust division sued to block the merger of two regional grocery chains in Southern California, Von's (the third-largest grocery chain in the Los Angeles area) and Shopping Bag (the #6 grocery chain in the Los Angeles area). <br /><br />The Supreme Court held that the merger was illegal because -- get this -- the combined companies would control a whopping 11% of the Los Angeles grocery market. You can read the Supreme Court's decision, it's pretty straightforward and doesn't contain too much legal jargon:<br /><br />https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/384/270/case.html<br /><br />Things sure have changed a lot since 1966. These days the Justice Department routinely approves mergers that result in a combined market share of 50%. And there have even been a couple of mergers with the end result of reducing the number of competitors from 3 to 2, like the Staples/Office Depot merger.<br /><br />Back in the 1960's people really understood the power (and dangers) posed by big business. The Von's case is also interesting because the Supreme Court believed that one of the purposes of antitrust law was to protect the livelihoods of small businesses -- they thought of it in human terms. Today people think of antitrust law in bloodless globalist terms, it's all about "efficiency," "competition," "transparency," "barriers to entry," etc. Joe Schmoehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15871134614183408024noreply@blogger.com