Leah 'AntiTrustButVerify' Nylen
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leahnylen.bsky.social
Leah 'AntiTrustButVerify' Nylen
@leahnylen.bsky.social
19K followers 590 following 800 posts
I cover antitrust. Currently reporting for Bloomberg News. Former Politico, MLex, CQ. Email me at lnylen2 at bloomberg.net. On Signal: leahnylen.88. Opinions are my own (obvi).
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leahnylen.bsky.social
AAG for Antitrust Gail Slater: “we should reject the suggestion that the only path to our economic security is to turn a critical market over to a monopolistic corporation. National champions are too often national chokepoints.”
Assistant AG for Antitrust Gail Slater speaks from behind a podium
September 16, 2025 at 6:25 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Sometimes I don't enjoy having called things. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Screenshot of breaking news alert. Headline: Trump Says He Will Fire Fed's Cook If She Does Not Resign Text: President Trump says he'll fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook is she doesn't resign. Trump speaks to reporters in Washington.
August 22, 2025 at 2:27 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Screencap of a paragraph from article: "For anyone else involved in tech M&A, such as investment bankers and deal lawyers, any limits on transactions mean fewer commissions and other fees. So, of course, they're inclined to criticize antitrust enforcement — whether deals are good for consumers and society or not."
August 5, 2025 at 2:30 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
The most important part for the other cases is probably this discussion of Trinko on page 46:
Highlighted text from ruling: "We accept Trinko’s lesson that a single entity’s decision not to deal with competitors can be legal under the Sherman Act, but it is well established that antitrust remedies can and often must proscribe otherwise lawful conduct to unwind and further prevent violators’ anticompetitive activity.... These cases underscore that, after establishing liability, the district court had within its basket of remedial powers the authority to require Google to deal with parties harmed by its anticompetitive conduct, including its competitors"
July 31, 2025 at 5:20 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Might need to make this my profile picture for a bit.
Text message exchange between Hannah Smith and Marni Goldberg. Hannah: Leah broke through the media silence. LINK Marni: Shit
May 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
I missed this piece when it came out this summer, but it's got so much amazingness. “Her origins are Italians” and her “extraordinary skills within preserves” and the phrase “nevertheless tasty and original” and my favorite passage about "stupid questions" www.phillymag.com/foobooz/2024...
Passage from the article: "I get one kitchen manager on the phone, and he says this is “the stupidest fucking question” he’s ever been asked, and I’m like, Come on … really? This is Philadelphia, asshole, and if THIS is the stupidest question anyone has ever asked you, then you gotta get out more. I mean, two days ago, one of my neighbors asked me if I thought a cat could survive jumping out of the second-floor window of her townhouse and I said yeah, sure, cats are amazing, and then she said, “But what if it was carrying a whole chicken?,” and that wasn’t even the stupidest question I’d heard THAT DAY."
October 23, 2024 at 4:43 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
The rest of the proposals were mostly narrowed, now requiring only 5 years of historical deals, for example, and brief narratives of the overlaps
Table 2—Select Modified NPRM Proposals
October 10, 2024 at 7:06 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
10 of the original proposals were cut entirely including information on labor market/employees
Table 1—Rejected Proposals: Labor Market/Employee Information; Drafts of Transaction-Related Documents; Organizational Chart of Authors and Recipients; Other Types of Interest Holders that May Exert Influence; Expand Current 4(d)(iii) to Include Financial Projections to Synergies and Efficiencies; Deal Timeline; Provision of Geolocation Information; Identification of Messaging Systems; Litigation Hold Certification Language; Identification of F/K/A Names
October 10, 2024 at 7:05 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
UFCW 7 + 324 + 400 + 770 + 3000 oppose Kroger and Albertsons deal on the steps of Portland federal courthouse
August 26, 2024 at 3:03 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
AG Merrick Garland with the TSwift Easter egg. m.youtube.com/watch?v=wIft...
It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster. The American people are ready for it.
May 23, 2024 at 4:18 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
The first ad I encountered on my way home from USvGoogle. #maybetheythinkjudgemehtatakesmetro
Mullvad VPN ad: if your friend was a commercial search engine. Two men pictured. Guy 1: “What is this?! You’ve been taking notes on me for 20 years? And selling them” Guy 2, standing in front of reams of paper stacked under categories like “vacuum refund” “photos of dog”: “Um…it’s so I can be a better friend to you”
May 3, 2024 at 10:13 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Under the minibus, that's not true anymore. Any money brought in above the $233 million Congress has appropriated would now an explicit additional legislation.
Provided further, that notwithstanding section 605 of the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 1990 (15 USC 18a note), none of the funds credited to this account as offsetting collections during the current fiscal year shall become available for obligation in any fiscal year except as provided in the proceedings two provisos or as provided in a subsequent appropriations Act.
March 4, 2024 at 6:55 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
But really, its the capping provision that's the biggest blow. For years, the DOJ's budget included a line that any excess money generated from fees could get saved for the next year to be used by the DOJ and FTC.
Provided, that fees in excess of $40 million in fiscal year 1990 shall be deposited to the credit of the Treasury of the United States: Provided further, that fees made available to the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division herein shall remain available until expended.
March 4, 2024 at 6:51 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Tomorrow. RemedyFest featuring Sen. Elizabeth Warren + Sen. J.D. Vance + FTC Chair Lina Khan + Bharat Ramamurti + Tim Wu + Soren Iverson + many more (including me & @birnbaume.bsky.social who are moderating). You can watch LIVE here: www.youtube.com/@RemedyFest
RemedyFest, Feb. 27 = Sen. Elizabeth Warren + Sen. JD Vance + FTC Chair Lina Khan + Bharat Ramamurti + Tim Wu +Soren Iverson
February 26, 2024 at 8:50 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
The e-mail commemorating the no-poach agreement
Hi Dan and Brent - I spoke with Todd to let him know about the commitment not to hire King Soopers workers during the strike and the commitment not to solicit patients to transfer their prescriptions. He understands and supports this.
February 14, 2024 at 7:05 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
From the NYT brief in OCTOBER
"The need for openness in this case — arguably the most important antitrust trial in decades, with far-reaching consequences for the future of the tech industry — is both obvious and hard to overstate. Yet much of the testimony has taken place behind closed doors, and much other evidence remains out of public view"
February 12, 2024 at 6:10 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Ramos says there is "substantial evidence" that there are different types of online advertising, so Dr. Israel's arguments that companies are just going to shift their budgets isn't plausible.
Substantial evidence throughout the record demonstrates that programmatic is distinct from social and endemic channels and is viewed as such by industry participants. As a result, the Court does not find it plausible that, in the event the hypothetical monopolist increased DeepIntent’s prices, there would be so much substitution outside of the proposed market that the price increase would become unprofitable
January 8, 2024 at 9:51 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
And Judge Ramos didn't find Dr. Israel's analysis to be very good.
Conversely, the Court does not find Dr. Israel’s conception of the market persuasive.
January 8, 2024 at 9:49 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Ramos sides with the FTC. His TL;DR -- just because online advertising exists doesn't mean there isn't a subsection of it focused only on online advertising to healthcare professionals.
In other words, the existence of a larger market within which two products compete does not necessarily mean that they are reasonably interchangeable substitutes for one another. In this case, there is undeniably a broader market for digital healthcare advertising in which programmatic, social media, and endemic websites all participate. But “the viability of such additional markets does not render the one identified by the government unusable.”
January 8, 2024 at 9:46 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
There's some quibbling over whether the FTC has to raise "serious question" or has a "fair and tenable chance," but Ramos says the exact phrasing doesn't really matter. If the FTC has raised reasonable probability that a merger will harm competition, it goes to the agency trial.
At bottom, the Court may not simply rubber stamp the FTC’s request for an injunction upon the showing of a mere possibility that the antitrust laws will be violated. Instead, the Court must exercise its independent judgment to determine whether the FTC has raised serious questions about the antitrust merits that warrant thorough investigation in the first instance by the FTC. In doing so, however, the Court may not require the FTC to prove the merits of its case or to establish a violation of the Clayton Act. That inquiry is reserved for the administrative proceeding.
January 8, 2024 at 9:41 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
A tale of two antitrust trial. On the right, Epic v Google exhibit of a 2018 email describing the meeting between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. On the left, the US v Google exhibit of the same email.
December 22, 2023 at 6:01 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Statement on FTC challenge to proposed license agreement
with Maze Therapeutics
Statement on FTC challenge to proposed license agreement with Maze Therapeutics
December 11, 2023 at 9:26 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Both companies will "support and defend" and work in good faith to modify agreement to resolve regulatory concerns.
November 17, 2023 at 10:04 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
CEOs must meet each year and discuss in good faith any concerns about the deal
November 17, 2023 at 10:04 PM
leahnylen.bsky.social
Google has right of first refusal if Apple wants ads on Siri or Spotlight.
November 17, 2023 at 10:04 PM