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Muzzling Antitrust: Information Products, Innovation and Free Speech

By  |  March 17, 2015

Posted by Social Science Research Network

Muzzling Antitrust: Information Products, Innovation and Free Speech–  Hillary Greene (University of Connecticut)

Abstract: How well does the American legal system balance the diverse values society espouses? Courts must often navigate values that are not consistent, commensurate, or subject to ordinal ranking. This article examines the confluence of incommensurate values within the important context of antitrust challenges to information product redesigns (e.g., Google, Nielsen).

The information economy has given rise to the emergence of powerful firms in the business of information products. Some of these firms have had product redesigns challenged as anticompetitive. This article examines two defenses to these challenges. First, the products constitute protected speech and should be immunized entirely from antitrust scrutiny. Second, the product changes embody procompetitive innovations and, therefore, are not anticompetitive.