In the end, all it took down to bring down the government's case against Meta was a simple experiment https://www.platformer.news/ftc-loses-meta-case-analysis/
@caseynewton The sentence you write later in the article suggests that List's study also showed that Instagram is the #1 substitute for Facebook. Should acquiring your #1 substitute be an antitrust violation?
@mpanhans i think so, *if* the FTC had been able to define the relevant market. but in the end they couldn’t
@caseynewton Yeah that seems right. Economists often want to do antitrust without market definition at all - just look at whether a company is acquiring a strong alternative, and what is the effect of such an acquisition on consumers. Lawyers and judges find it more appealing to think about defining markets and market shares. That's some of the tension.
