I've been thinking about antitrust laws a bunch lately. And no, it's not just about football, though antitrust in professional sports is actually pretty
interesting and
current. I've been thinking more about cell phone and media companies, with the
NBC/Comcast merger, and yesterday's news that
AT&T is buying T-Mobile. Now, I'm not at all an expert on antitrust law. (I haven't even taken the class, so I don't get to even pretend I'm an expert around finals time.) The way I think it roughly works, though, is that the important question is monopoly and monopoly practices. So, when Bell Telephone ran all the phone lines in the US, the court ordered them to break into competing companies (the so-called "baby bells"). Additionally, when
multiple firms collude to intentionally fix prices or otherwise "break the market" (my highly technical phrase), they are subject to harsh penalties.
