Antitrust Implications of the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act
Alisha Parker-Martell The Banning Surveillance Advertising Act, proposed in the 117th Congress of the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Eshoo, would improve consumer data protection but would also have negative consequences on market competition in sectors that utilize user data. This Act is indicative of a growing conflict between antitrust policy and consumer data privacy. This essay argues that future federal consumer data privacy legislation should attempt to balance the competing interests of market health and consumer privacy rights by prohibiting exploitative uses of consumer data and mandating consumer data sharing and a period of exclusive use of collected data....
Lord of the Gadflies: Dispelling Confusion over Celebrity Likeness by Applying the Right of Publicity to Commercial Speech on Social Media
Nicholas Turgiss Celebrities have increasingly used social media to market themselves. This trend has given rise to confusion as to the extent of a celebrity’s right over their own likeness. This article discusses the right of publicity and argues that because celebrity social media accounts have significant commercial aspects, celebrities’ likenesses on those accounts should receive protective commercial speech interests. This article also urges courts to recognize these protective interests in celebrity social media accounts and provide additional protection to smaller social media influencers from the appropriation of their own likenesses. Read Full Text Here
Tarantino v. Miramax: The Rise of NFTs and Their Copyright Implications
Emily Dieli Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital assets that are part of a relatively new industry involving blockchains and cryptocurrencies. As NFTs grow in popularity, questions have arisen over NFT copyright ownership. A federal court will have the opportunity to rule on this issue for the first time in a pending case between Miramax and Quentin Tarantino. The film production company and the well-known director are in dispute over intellectual property ownership of screenplay scenes that Tarantino sold as NFTs. The outcome of the case and future laws will have a direct impact on the way NFTs are purchased and...
Regulating the Unregulatable: The Digital Commodity Exchange Act’s Use- Based Approach to Cryptocurrency Regulation
Becky Powell Since the creation of Bitcoin in 2008, the cryptocurrency market has grown exponentially and remained relatively free from government oversight. Only within the last five years have federal agencies begun to regulate the risks the industry poses. Their response to date, though, has been piecemeal because they lack explicit, statutory jurisdiction over the industry. As a result, the cryptocurrency market faces several risks that threaten to derail its future growth. For one, the industry is a playground for criminal activity, including everything from money laundering to fraud to cyberattacks. The market is also extremely volatile, and consumers have...
A New Understanding of Who Is a Direct Purchaser Based on Apple Inc. v. Pepper
Jacob Mitchell A group of consumers sued Apple in 2011 alleging that Apple had violated antitrust laws through their monopolization of their App Store. In trying to dismiss the suit, Apple asserted that consumers, despite purchasing apps directly from Apple through the App Store, did not have standing to sue them as monopolists because the consumers were actually buying from the app developers. The Supreme Court rejected Apple’s argument in its 2019 ruling in Apple, Inc. v. Pepper. By rejecting Apple’s view, the Supreme Court has expanded consumers’ available remedies by clarifying that consumers that buy directly from a distributor are...
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...