Thread by @doctorow

Building anticompetitive moats to defend monopoly positions - they are a form of monopoly maintenance -Jonathan Kanter #disruptedtimes22

Building barriers to entry in ancillary services to protect the core monopoly.

Moats have powerful, digital-specific network and feedback effects.

Worst: Moats are often build by platform participants and users

These are dynamic, multi-sided markets (implying that market definition questions are misguided).

Lock-in is key to moats, keeping participants from going elsewhere.

Three strategies to address moats:

1. Update merger enforcement tools - acknowledge that "web effects" prevent entry into core markets, irrespective of whether a nascent competitor has vertical or horizontal effects

2. A faithful application of the law demands aggressive enforcement against firms that already have a dominant position. Holistic thinking about moat-building: Building a moat at the front of the castle isn't a separate act from building a moat at the back of the castle.

3. Think about discriminatory conduct. Discrimination by platforms is an existential risk for firms, which makes self-preferencing and discrimination (or merely their threat) a powerful way to steer firms' conduct.

Independent firms that face discrimination threats are disincentivized from investing in innovation, which saps dynamism from our digital economy

Delighted to announce that the DoJ has weighed in in favor of bicameral, bipartisan legislation clarifying the illegality of discriminatory and exclusionary conduct by platforms

"We are eager to provide full-throated support for this worthy and important endeavor"

Q: How will you win when judges disagree with you?

A. In the US the way you develop the law is by filing a lawsuit, going to court and arguing

Recalls how Bork marvelled in the 2nd Ed to the Antitrust Paradox that the courts evolved the law so much in 15 years, thanks to all the cases brought before judges

(c.f. "Ideas lying around")

A lot of the fear of judges in unfounded - the law and the judges are more flexible than we believe.

On the need for international trustbusting: There's concern in the US that Europeans will be treated better by American companies than Americans are

America is polarized on many political issues, but not antitrust - it's bipartisan