Moss Talks Tech Mergers at George Washington University Law School

Diana Moss spoke at George Washington University Law School and Crowell & Moring’s inaugural Antitrust & Tech Conference.

Her panel, “Acquisitions Involving Nascent, Potential, and Innovation Competition, “was moderated by Former Chair of the FTC Bill Kovacic and explored how antitrust enforcers could go about investigating and challenging a wider range of acquisitions involving nascent, potential, and innovation competition:

• How should agencies go about defining markets, determining whether the smaller upstart might have brought to bear added competition or otherwise impacted competitive threats to the incumbent, evaluating entry, and ultimately assessing pro- as well as anti-competitive effects?
• How reliable must those predictions be?
• What kinds of inferences can be justified?
• What evidence will be relevant?
• What is the relevant timeline for assessing competitive effects in these cases?
• How should price and non-price effects be assessed?
• Does current antitrust law enable enforcers to successfully challenge these deals, or must the law and burdens of proof change in some way?

Moss was joined by:

• Jonathan Baker, Research Professor of Law, American University
• Patricia Galvan, Assistant Director, Technology Enforcement Division, Federal Trade Commission
• Alexis Gilman, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP