The Antitrust Alphabet: Amazon, Buy Box, and Competition
Nathaniel DeMelis Eighty-three percent of sales made on Amazon.com come from the “Buy Box” system. This website feature has come under increased scrutiny in the State of California and the United Kingdom. Both jurisdictions have sued Amazon, citing that Amazon’s Buy Box is anticompetitive and harms consumers at large. This Article considers the parallel lawsuits Amazon is facing and examines the different antitrust enforcement mechanisms and policy motivations in both California and the United Kingdom. Ultimately, this Article suggests that the California courts will find the Buy Box to be anticompetitive, due largely to their willingness to diverge from the federal consumer-welfare...
BLOG POST: DR. AMAZON: SHINING A LIGHT ON HIPAA INADEQUACIES THROUGH AMAZON’S EXPANSION INTO THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY*
*This writing is a blog post. It is not a published IPTF Journal Article. Alexa Dawid Technology giants are spending billions to enter the healthcare space.[1] Offerings like Apple’s health monitoring functions on the iPhone, Microsoft’s cloud computing services for healthcare companies, and Meta’s fitness applications through its virtual reality goggles have transformed traditional notions of doctor’s offices and paper records into convenient digital systems.[2] Amazon has been one of the most ambitious within the space, debuting six HIPAA-compliant skills for Alexa in April 2019.[3] These skills mark the first time Alexa has surpassed HIPAA requirements in utilizing HIPAA-compliant...
The Secret Life of Platform Intellectual Property Adjudication
Shih-wei Chao An emerging trend in intellectual property law is e-commerce platforms adjudicating infringement disputes. When platforms receive right holder complaints and decide whether to remove product listings, suspend the seller, or destroy the infringing inventory—intentional or not—they are acting as “courts,” applying unique “laws” and granting platform-style “remedies.” To provide a peek into this nascent realm of intellectual property alternative dispute resolution, this article first compiles what is known about platforms’ adjudication mechanisms, from complaint to decision, from enforcement to “appeals,” covering both platforms’ basic complaint systems and Amazon’s UPNEP/APEX program. Normatively, however, there are concerns that platforms are...
Defining Copyright Protections on Social Media in the Age of Instagram #Reposts
Jessica Barbaria Globally, more than one billion people use Instagram every month. It is no wonder Instagram’s impressive user base has attracted big businesses to the platform. Brands seeking to grow their audiences often turn to social media to reach new customers, engage with existing customers, and source marketing content. Despite brands’ increasing reliance on Instagram, the legal boundaries of social media marketing are not well defined. Brands do not always know when they have permission to exploit user-generated content, and users do not always feel their content is fully protected. To clarify this uncertainty, Congress should amend the Copyright...
Applying Antitrust in Digital Markets: Foundations and Approaches
Mark Jamison This paper analyzes the conflicts that arise when trying to apply traditional antitrust principles in the context of digital markets. Antitrust has both political and economic foundations. The political approach emphasizes populist themes that ultimately harm economic development, whereas economic approaches focus on characterizations of and remedies for market power. Digitization of markets thwarts current antitrust tools by adding complexity and rapid change. Several authors suggest populist approaches for antitrust in digital markets, but these lack rigor and fail to address central challenges. This Article suggests that antitrust should return to its earliest roots and directly address features...