Tuesday, April 7, 2009

AP Doesn't Want US To Say Much More Than...

This.

I've yet to take Antitrust, so I would like to hear the opinions of our learned audience about whether what the AP is trying to do violates some Antitrust provisions. What do you say, Illuminati: Could the AP be barred from taking such concerted action? Is the news business a 'form of trade' that should not be 'restrained?'

[Ed. Note: The illustration was found here after a Google search of "picture of newsie." I can just see it now: 'Extra! Extra! Bleed All About It!']

4 comments:

  1. I don't think there's any problem. It's their work, why would they be unable to restrict it?

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  2. This could pose an antitrust problem, but if the case were to come to the Supreme Court, it might have occasion to overturn the precedent causing the problem. As I understand, the AP is a cooperative venture between thousands of news outlets. Accordingly, it is sort of top-up, as opposed to top-down. This distinction would make the action a "horizontal" restraint as opposed to a "vertical" restraint. The latter is judged under much less strict rules than the former. But, many have suggested for a time that the Court will revisit its view in this regard.

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  3. Antitrust litigator here. I don't see a problem. The AP doesn't have a monopoly position in any market, as far as I know, so I can't see why they would be restricted in setting the terms of where and how their product is used.

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  4. 11:58, they could certainly do so under most circumstances, but the Court has previously held that restrictions on output from the AP itself were a violation of the antitrust laws....unless there has been a change in the structure of the AP, I don't know how this is any different.

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