DOJ, AT&T Honing Arguments as Antitrust Trial Nears, AEI's Lyons Says
DOJ's slight shift on theory in its AT&T/Time Warner litigation gives it an easier argument (see 1803150030), possibly reducing the stakes, American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Daniel Lyons blogged. Justice initially argued New AT&T would be able to raise consumer…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
prices by making rivals pay more for TW content; now it's focusing on the costs to AT&T competitors, since the government's expert found merger efficiencies are likely to reduce AT&T subscriber pricing, Lyons said. Meanwhile, AT&T dropped its selective prosecution arguments, in which it claimed it was being singled out because of Trump administration antipathy to CNN, since the court signaled skepticism, he said. One must for the government is to show its estimated increase in rivals' subscriber prices -- 45 cents per month -- is significant enough to constitute harm to competition, he said. He said DOJ could face difficulty in proving New AT&T would have incentive to coordinate with Comcast and "may have a path to victory" since Judge Richard Leon of Washington also presided over the 2011 Comcast/NBCUniversal and thus is familiar with the government's theory in the case, he said. Also Friday, telecom lawyer/consultant Jonathan Lee criticized DOJ's case as not reflecting contemporary video distribution business realities. Being an MVPD "simply isn't as profitable as [the agency] seems to remember," and MVPDs now lack the ability to pass on programming price increases without losing customers, Lee blogged. He said DOJ arguments that New AT&T will be able to raise prices ignores that blackouts are on the rise, which indicates MVPDs are far less willing to accept programmers' price demands, and declining subscriber numbers show customers reject current price levels. The trial is to begin Monday and is expected to last 15 days (see 1803080047).