The 2022 University of Memphis Law Review Symposium seeks papers and presenters to explore whether existing antitrust law is sufficient to govern a 21st Century digital economy. Topics for discussion and analysis might include:
- Is the modern consumer welfare standard too focused on short-term consumer price effects at the expense of longer term effects on innovation, quality, and consumer choice?
- Are current merger control provisions sufficient to protect emerging or nascent competition, or take into account potential vertical competition concerns?
- Are current antitrust rules applicable to a monopolist’s acquisition and use of big data?
- Are current concepts of market definition, market power, and anticompetitive conduct adequate for the modern digital economy?
- When anticompetitive conduct is found under traditional antitrust rules, are currently available remedies sufficient in the modern digital economy?
- Does antitrust in the modern digital economy need to be broadened to consider factors like wage and income inequality, political power, and free speech?
- Are current proposals to amend the U.S. antitrust laws appropriate, and are there potentially useful examples from abroad that should be considered here?