“Are you speaking to Truong from the percentage?” Really loving Apple Intelligence summaries on my new phone.

Iain M Banks would have approved.

“When I use a word…” Humphrey Dumpty said…

Well it’s definitely a view.

One of the “meta” rules about competition (and competition policy) is that it’s generally not a good idea to let control over one layer of a system allow control over other layers as well. 1/x

Six years ago, almost to the day, Apple removing a similar app from the Hong Kong App Store was seen as such a breach that Tim Cook wrote an all staff email to defend it www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

This is a pretty good argument in support of the EU’s DMA which requires alternative app stores.

48/52. The cursèd ratio.

What have the Normans ever done for us?

How do you even engage with this level of madness?

On a panel with Larry Summers today, he argued that the "calamitous " election of Zohran Mamdani is (at least in part) a byproduct of abandoning the consumer welfare standard in antitrust.

@thombrooks.bsky.social Thom, sounds fantastic but this doesn’t look right, unless you’re planning very long introductory remarks!

“Mish and Lucy made their way to the food store after breaking free - before consuming a "week's worth of honey". Just the bear necessities.

If nobody wants them then they aren’t worth 800m. They probably have decent scrap metal value though given they’re basically steel boxes. www.vice.com/en/article/t...

It seems to me a principle of EU law is emerging, if not already there, that in any area in which Member States exercise competence and the exercise of that competence can undermine a core value/principle/concept of Union law, there is a “don’t-take-the-piss” doctrine that allows EU-law review.

Best summary of the Malta decision I’ve seen.

The children will be self-driving before Teslas will.

Now in today's Observer. www.theguardian.com/education/20... Yet Oxford are still spending far more on legal fees fighting this than it would cost to honour their employment law obligations. You have to wonder, who really runs Oxford University, and in whose interests?

A good reminder that competition authorities should never neglect the basics (as Richard Whish has argued for years).

The Gradual Impact of Sanctioning #Cartels on Market Competition. Sergio Pelaez (#GeorgiaTech) & @juandgut.bsky.social (#UnidelosAndes) examine the impact of cartel enforcement on market competition with focus on manufacturing firms in Colombia. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

OK. There will be a massive rearmament in Europe. And the simple choice is: as nation states, with the constant possibility of conflicts - or together. I hope that there are some politicians left who have understood the wisdom of a Jean Monnet.

And a useful follow up.

Excellent thread, though personally disappointed that the “red face test” doesn’t appear.

👏

Private practice competition lawyers like me often get paid to oppose interventions by competition agencies. It’s interesting that the chatter is very much “well this will be good for our clients; bad for the economy though.”

This paper by the late, great Nick Crafts, on competition and productivity in the UK, well worth a read: cepr.org/voxeu/column...

Hm, I can see myself having to say pretty often that enforcing competition so markets work in the interests of customers means there is *less* need for regulation of other kinds.

Another successful outcome from a case we backed.

This cites @proffionasm.bsky.social ‘s excellent Promarket piece on the US consumer welfare standard. It’s worth bearing in mind though that EU antitrust takes a broader view of consumer welfare so I’m not sure all the criticism is well-founded.

Competition policy only examines the short-term effects on consumer prices. The harms to workers and small business owners are not taken into account. To rectify this, the Pirate Party proposes adopting a modern science-based competition standard. piratenpartij.nl/bijdrage-pir...

Hard mode can be annoying. Wordle 1,290 6/6* ⬛⬛🟩🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Lots of comments that Carter wasn’t a great President. But possibly one of the greatest men ever to be President.

1 of many flaws is that next Parliament could undo changes before they ever have effect. - we’re worried about foreign interference - we ban foreign interference but only in the election after next - foreign interference in the next election leads to a gov that repeals for’n interference law

Silly headline, silly piece.

Factually quite ropey too, confusing the GDPR (adopted pre referendum), the competition rules and the DMA. No fines yet under the DMA. And he seems blissfully unaware of the UK’s own tech regulation.

The new competition Commissioner’s first major speech at a competition event. #brusselsconference_cra

The current panel session at the big CRA Brussels antitrust conference has two big proponents of behavioural economics. I doubt this would have happened even five years ago. #brusselsconference_cra

Great starter pack for non-UK perspectives on the EU-UK relationship.

Hello BlueSky! We're new here. We're campaigning for proportionate, evidence-based, rights-respecting, measures to tackle the harm caused by fake and anonymous accounts on social media. Read more about us here: www.cleanuptheinternet.org.uk

Time for an introduction! I'm the alter ego of @danjconn.bsky.social I am raising money for Refuge UK, a charity that helps women and children tormented by domestic violence. I aim to run both Brighton and London Marathons in April 2025 and am raising money here www.justgiving.com/page/0n1ydan5

This might make sense if prosecutorial discretion was clearly a good thing. That’s a very context specific question but generally is not at all clear.

Here we are! Follow for updates on the campaign. Join European Movement as a member today and help bring the UK closer to the EU: www.europeanmovement.co.uk/membership

Interesting - and interestingly timed - intervention by Christine Lagarde on the future of EU competition policy. Strong support of rigorous antitrust enforcement for the good of the economy as a whole. www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/da...

Rachel Reeves and Labour have just done something remarkable: expended vast financial and political capital on vital long-term investments on which they can expect no returns in this parliament. That should be a cause for celebration not brickbats. My latest open.substack.com/pub/nixons/p...

Out now: @soclablaw.bsky.social book setting out a law reform agenda for the new Labour government. Delighted to have contributed the Brexit and Trade chapter. policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/british-lega...

A couple of years after he stepped down as FTC chair, Bill Kovacic spoke at a DG COMP event. Asked what lessons he’d learned, he said, “Never let an economist tell you how to win a court case.” I suspect after today’s CJEU ruling in Intel, COMP wishes it had followed his advice.

In Spanish slang, speaking with total confidence about a subject you know nothing about can be referred to as cuñadismo. It means “brother-in-law-ism” * read on for more of my favourite words and phrases, from various Spanishes, to mark Spanish Language Day…

If only there were a relatively recent example of someone unpopular being lent MP votes, leading to an unwanted leader and electoral catastrophe from which the Tories could have learned lessons.