Blockchain antitrust is a fascinating subject. The number of cases is rising (I will discuss that shortly), and antitrust agencies are slowly but surely starting to devote resources to the topic. With that in mind, I am delighted to publish my latest article entitled Libra: A Concentrate of “Blockchain Antitrust”. This is a short one (10 pages) dealing with a “blockchain antitrust” blockbuster to be. The stars of that movie are several of the world’s most powerful companies, and the plot is truly disruptive. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it.
Here’s the abstract:
Mark Zuckerberg introduced Libra to the world in June 2019 with the goal of “enabl[ing] a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.” Two months after, and without waiting for the project to be launched, the European Commission sent a questionnaire to various parties connected to Libra in order to investigate “potential anti-competitive behaviors.” The U.S. House of Representatives also conducted a series of hearings at the end of October 2019 questioning the intentions behind Libra.
Against this background, Part I of this Essay analyzes the type of governance that Libra is aiming for, as it indicates the nature and frequency of certain anticompetitive risks. Part II offers an assessment of the anticompetitive collusion and monopolization that Libra governance might yield. The discussion concludes by assessing the desirability of the adversarial approach adopted by antitrust agencies and governments thus far.
READ IT HERE
(Freely accessible, no need to create an account.
How? Go to “download this paper,” then click on “download without registration” in the bottom right).
Dr. Thibault Schrepel
@LeConcurrential
