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Should the Leading Online Tech Companies Be Regulated as Public Utilities?
From: "Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2017 13:30:47 -0400
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From: Peter Swire <peter () peterswire net> Date: August 2, 2017 at 11:34:27 AM EDT To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net> Subject: Should the Leading Online Tech Companies Be Regulated as Public Utilities? Dave: For IP if you wish, an article on Lawfare today: https://lawfareblog.com/should-leading-online-tech-companies-be-regulated-public-utilities Peter = Should the Leading Online Tech Companies Be Regulated as Public Utilities? Should the leading online tech companies be regulated as public utilities? Maybe so, according to White House advisor Steve Bannon. His basic argument, according to The Intercept, “is that Facebook and Google have become effectively a necessity in contemporary life.” Thus far, the tech sector and Washington think-tank crowd have not grappled with that possibility in much depth, if at all. This post will provide a look at some reasons that leading tech companies today resemble sectors traditionally subjected to public utility regulation, and then consider some strong critiques of such a regulatory approach. Historically, utility regulation has been more prominent where we see: (1) high market share; (2) a service that is vital for consumers; (3) a “natural monopoly”; and (4) barriers to exit by consumers. For the first factor, one can debate which market measurements to use, but Facebook and Google are unquestionably large. Both have billions of users globally. Google has about an 88 percent market share globally for search, and Facebook now reaches about 89 percent of U.S. Internet users. As to the second, online services are perhaps not quite as vital to daily life as electricity, but Bannon is likely correct to say that services such as search, navigation, and social networks are “effectively a necessity of modern life.<snip> There are also compelling arguments against the view that online services today deserve regulation as public utilities. <snip> Prof. Peter Swire Huang Professor of Law and Ethics Scheller College of Business Georgia Institute of Technology Senior Counsel Alston & Bird LLP Ph: 240-994-4142 Web: www.peterswire.net
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- Should the Leading Online Tech Companies Be Regulated as Public Utilities? Dave Farber (Aug 02)