Recorded Webinar—Special Interest Over Public Interest: Why a Return to Antitrust’s Rent-Seeking Past Will Fail Consumers

Webinar

Our Panelists:

Joshua D. Wright, University Professor of Law, George Mason University Scalia School of Law
Corbin K. Barthold, Internet Policy Counsel and Director of Appellate Litigation, TechFreedom

Description:
Antitrust “reformers” insist that big corporations’ abuse of power and the accompanying societal ills compel abandonment of the consumer-welfare standard in favor of a vague structuralist test. But as our panelists will explain, history and economic theory dictate that deep-pocketed, well-connected special interests can and will exploit the increased discretion a pliable standard affords regulators. Such an outcome, they will contend, will serve neither consumers nor other intended beneficiaries of a Neo-Brandeisian approach to antitrust.

Documents:

Corbin Barthold slides

Competition Policy International April 2018 Dorsey/Rybnicek/Wright article

Speakers' Biographies

Joshua D. Wright

Josh is University Professor of Law at George Mason University Scalia School of Law and also is Executive Director of the school's Global Antitrust Institute. President Obama nominated Josh to serve as a Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Senate confirmed him on January 1, 2013, a position he held until Fall 2015. He served at the Commission three times previously, including in the Bureau of Competition as its inaugural Scholar-in-Residence from 2007 to 2008. Josh is a member of WLF's volunteer Legal Policy Advisory Board.

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Corbin K. Barthold

Corbin is TechFreedom's Internet Policy Counsel and Director of Appellate Litigation. He clerked for the Hon. Steven D. Merryday (M.D. Fla.) and the Hon. Robert H. Cleland (E.D. Mich.). After his clerkships, he became an associate, and later a partner, in the Los Angeles office of Browne George Ross LLP, where he engaged in high-stakes complex litigation. He also served as Washington Legal Foundation's Senior Litigation Counsel.

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