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26 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 395 (2018-2019)
When the Econometrician Shrugged: Identifying and Plugging Gaps in the Consumer-Welfare Standard

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        WHEN THE ECONOMETRICIAN SHRUGGED:
        IDENTIFYING AND PLUGGING GAPS IN THE
               CONSUMER-WELFARE STANDARD


                         Kevin   Caves  & Hal  Singer*




INTRODUCTION


     Edge  providers  have  alleged that dominant   tech platforms  exploit their
platform  power  to gain an  artificial advantage in some  ancillary, edge  mar-
kets. In May   2018,  Yelp  filed a  complaint  at the European Commission,
alleging that Google   abused  its dominance   in local search by  giving  pre-
ferred placement   to its own   local search  offerings over  similarly  situated
rivals.' Facebook   has  been  accused   of leveraging  its platform  power   by
appropriating   the functionality  of Snapchat   (Stories  feature), Timehop
(On  This  Day  feature), Grubhub   (food  delivery feature), and  GoFundMe
(fundraising  feature).2 And Amazon has been accused of leveraging its plat-
form  power   into retail via predation  against independent   retailers such  as
Diapers.com,3   and more   recently by steering voice  searches  on Alexa   to its
private-label products.4



       Kevin Caves is Director of Econ One. Hal Singer is Managing Director of Econ One and an
Adjunct Professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. The views ex-
pressed here are those of the authors only and do not represent the views of the authors' affiliated em-
ployers. The authors would like to thank Michael Kades, Lina Khan, Marc Lipton, loana Marinescu,
Nicolas Petit, Randy Picker, Eric Posner, Rob Seamans, Marshall Steinbaum, and Glen Weyl for valua-
ble comments.
     1 See Rochelle Toplensky & Hannah Kuchler, Yelp Files New EU Complaint Against Google
over Search Dominance, FIN. TIMES (May 22, 2018), https://www.ft.com/content/42ac9l92-5dd2-1 1c8-
ad9l-c01af256df68.
    2  See Elizabeth Dwoskin, Facebook's Willingness to Copy Rivals' Apps Seen as Hurting Innova-
tion, WASH. POST (Aug. 10, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/facebooks-
willingness-to-copy-rivals-apps-scen-as-hurting-innovation/2017/08/10/ea7188ca-7df6-l I e7-a669-
b400c5c7clcc storyhtml?utm term=.a77cd0cfc5lf (But while [Facebook's Onavo app] advertises
itself to users as a way to 'keep you and your data safe,' Facebook is able to glean detailed insights
about what consumers are doing when they are not using the social network's family of apps, which
includes Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.).
    3  See Lina M. Khan, Amazon's Antitrust Paradox, 126 YALE L.J. 710, 768-74 (2017).
    4  Julie Creswell, How Amazon Steers Shoppers to Its Own Products, N.Y. TIMES (June 23, 2018),
 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/business/amazon-the-brand-buster.html ([R]cscarchers at Bain &
 Co., found in categories in which Amazon offered a private-label product, Alexa recommended those
 products 17% of the time. Noting that the private label goods represent only about 2% of total volume
 sold, the Bain researchers said, 'the online retailer clearly positions its own private labels favorably in
 voice shopping.').


395


2018]

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