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Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
“Under Antitrust laws, you become a criminal the moment you go into business. If you charge too much, you can be prosecuted for monopoly. If you charge too low, it’s unfair competition. If you charge the same prices as your competitors, you can be prosecuted for collusion” What’s y’all’s take on this take?
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Leo
@leosn.eth
Nah this ain’t a good take These things are bad if and only if you can convince court that these pricing decisions are related to market power In essence, if you have too much market power, antitrust should be able to get to you no matter what your prices are As it should be
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Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
So while ultimately I agree with you I’d push back on the characterization slightly - regulators (unelected one’s btw) don’t have to convince a court of truth in order to materially damage or hinder your org. They just have to threaten or charge and you’re locked up in a multi year public swamp trial
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Leo
@leosn.eth
Yeah fair in theory Are there many actual examples of a govt agency swamping a private company in cases? Even so, they should usually have good reason to act, because they should be accountable to parliament/Congress
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Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
I’d have to check the timelines but FAANG over the past 15 years has basically been consistently threatened by the FTC (not that I’m worried about them) - probably the best example of swamp is failed mergers (like visa plaid) that are extrajudicial threats without any opportunity cost from the ftc?
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Cameron Armstrong
@cameron
Also found this speech and tbh it’s pretty clear to me the attitude of the agency is “I would prosecute much more if my budget allowed” not, “where are the opportunities for us to help grow markets stunted by antitrust issues” lol (Link below bc govt links are long)
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Leo
@leosn.eth
But that sort of Visa acquisition is exactly the sort of thing antitrust wants to stop: incumbents buying up competition I really think regulators only care about big companies who won’t get swamped by a law suit from a government agency
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