Open Markets Institute
@openmarkets.bsky.social
We are a group of journalists & scholars in policy & economics working at the vanguard of antimonopoly to achieve victories that empower everyone. Learn more: openmarketsinstitute.org
Governments have a responsibility to ensure AI systems are safe, accountable, and transparent before they're deployed. The EU AI Act taking effect is an important step. Now comes the key part: rigorous enforcement. www.cnbc.com/2026/08/03/e...
Anthropic, OpenAI among firms facing new scrutiny under EU AI Act enforcement powers
The European Commission can demand to inspect AI models, restrict market access and fine providers up to 15 million euros or 3% of turnover.
cnbc.com
In a recent essay, Sandeep Vaheesan of @openmarkets.bsky.social argues that states should rebuild antitrust law with clear rules to curb corporate power. www.theregreview.org/2026/08/04/v...
"Google's durable dominance wasn't inevitable; it was purchased. If the court allows those payments to continue, the remedy will leave the monopoly largely intact instead of restoring genuine competition." www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...
Open Markets Urges Appeals Court to Restore Competition in Search as Google Extends Its Gatekeeper Power into AI — Open Markets Institute
Open Markets filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to prohibit Google from continuing to pay billions of dollars each year to preserve its monopoly over internet...
openmarketsinstitute.org
NEW: OMI amicus brief argues Google should not be allowed to preserve its search monopoly through billions in payments that keep Google as the default search engine. www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...
Open Markets Urges Appeals Court to Restore Competition in Search as Google Extends Its Gatekeeper Power into AI — Open Markets Institute
Open Markets filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to prohibit Google from continuing to pay billions of dollars each year to preserve its monopoly over internet...
openmarketsinstitute.org
In the @bostonglobe.com, @openmarkets.bsky.social fellow Matt Scherer & Maya Jenkins warn that mounting AI debt & speculative investment pose risks comparable to past financial bubbles. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/30/o...
The AI bubble could burst — and take the economy with it - The Boston Globe
Washington is loosening financial safeguards just as risks tied to artificial intelligence are mounting.
bostonglobe.com
The debate over grocery prices focuses on inflation. It should also focus on concentration. Four meatpackers control roughly 80–85% of the U.S. beef market. That's not a competitive market—it's an oligopoly, and families pay the price.
State AI laws promoting transparency, civil rights, & accountability don't make #AI less "accurate." They make AI companies more accountable. Our latest #FTC filing explains why the agency should withdraw its proposed AI policy statement. cmdg.tech/publications...
FTC Should Protect Consumers. Not Shield AI Companies from State Oversight, CMDG Says — Center for Media & Digital Governance
The Center for Media and Digital Governance (CMDG) at the Open Markets Institute urged the Federal Trade Commission to withdraw its proposed policy statement on AI accuracy , warning that the agenc...
cmdg.tech
#Spotify is shifting payments from smaller artists to big labels. Read about it in The Corner Newsletter & prepare to share our outrage. By Jai Sharma: openmarkets.substack.com/p/the-corner...
The Corner Newsletter: Spotify Shifts Payments from Smaller Artists to Big Labels
Welcome to The Corner.
openmarkets.substack.com
“For much of the 20th century, we understood that shipping was too important to leave entirely to the whims of the market. It's time to revisit that lesson.” - OMI Transportation Policy Analyst Arnav Rao www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...
Industry Spotlight: US Economic and National Security is Vulnerable to 'Container Cartel' — Open Markets Institute
A new Industry Spotlight on container shipping shows how decades of deregulation and consolidation have left the United States dependent on a ‘container cartel’ of six foreign-owned shipping firms whi...
openmarketsinstitute.org
NEW: Our latest Industry Spotlight shows how decades of deregulation + consolidation have left the US dependent on a ‘container cartel’ of 6 foreign-owned shipping firms, which control more than 90% of US trade on major routes. (That's bad.)
In the early 1900s, a handful of financiers sought to consolidate control over much of America's rail system through the Northern Securities Company. President Theodore Roosevelt invoked the Sherman Act & the Supreme Court broke up the company in 1904.
12 states have succeeded in pausing the Paramount-Warner Brothers merger. In Liberty & Power, Ben Winsor examines how the Ellisons' effort to build a media empire has triggered the biggest antitrust confrontation of the Trump era: open.substack.com/pub/libertya...
Twelve States Take On Hollywood's Biggest Merger – and the Oligarchs Behind It
The Ellisons' effort to build a media empire has triggered the biggest antitrust confrontation of the Trump era – pitting 12 states against one of the country’s richest families and its allies.
open.substack.com
If AI companies can use the First Amendment to shield basic facts about their products from public scrutiny, it will become much harder to govern these technologies in the public interest. www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...
Open Markets Institute Joins Amicus Brief Defending California AI Transparency Law in Landmark Appeal — Open Markets Institute
As debates about AI governance and transparency sweep across governments, the Open Markets Institute has joined an amicus brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold Calif...
openmarketsinstitute.org
Concentrated power is not inevitable. U.S. history is filled with moments when citizens decided that freedom required limits on private power. The question before every generation is the same: Will we distribute power broadly, or allow it to accumulate in fewer and fewer hands?
While still without definitive proof, the FDA links states with the largest cyclospora outbreaks to lettuce from produce giant, Taylor Farms. open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...
If an AI agent is controlled by a corporation whose business model depends on surveillance, advertising, and behavioral targeting, can it genuinely represent the interests of the user? Learn more from @sallyhubbard.bsky.social: www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...
Who Do AI Agents Work For? New Report Warns of Potential for Exploitation — Open Markets Institute
A report from Open Markets Institute Senior Fellow Sally Hubbard argues policymakers must ensure either that AI agents work on behalf of users, or that users understand when AI agents are working on b...
openmarketsinstitute.org
“Fining Google for its systematic and intentional non-compliance with the DMA is a good first step, but must be seen as the bare minimum." More from OMI Europe here: www.openmarketsinstitute.eu/publications...
The Verge@theverge.com · 2w agoGoogle hit with $1 billion fine for breaking EU antitrust rules
We know a bad call when we see one...
Center for Media & Digital Governance@cmdgtech.bsky.social · 2w ago"The Commission had every legal tool it needed to protect media pluralism and chose not to use them. This merger hands even more control over Europe's entertainment and news to a single American conglomerate.” - @courtneyr.bsky.social www.openmarketsinstitute.eu/publications...
TODAY at 2:30 pm ET: We're sharing @warren.senate.gov's conversation with Southern Justice Project at OMI founder @evanturnage.bsky.social. They talk about the impacts of concentrated corporate power & how to engage communities & fight back. WATCH here: youtu.be/Wj02jw1-83o?...
Senator Warren Speaks with the Southern Justice Project
YouTube video by Open Markets Institute
youtu.be
If today's AI business model follows the path of surveillance capitalism, targeted advertising could evolve into something even more invasive: the commercialization of our thoughts. New from CMDG Director @courtneyr.bsky.social @projectsyndicate.bsky.social www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
AI Will Supercharge Surveillance Capitalism
Courtney C. Radsch warns that whereas social media inferred your inner life from behavior, AI receives it in your own words.
project-syndicate.org
The European Commission will require Google to give competing AI assistants the same system-level access it reserves for Gemini. (Such system-level access is what lets an AI act as an agent rather than merely a chatbot.) digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/comm...
Commission provides guidance to Google for AI interoperability on Android and sharing of Google Search data under the Digital Markets Act
The European Commission has issued two sets of binding specification measures to Google under the Digital Markets Act.
digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu
AI companies have used a number of financial tricks to create a misleading and dangerously leveraged picture of the industry’s finances. In Persuasion, Damon Silvers & our fellow Matt Scherer explain: www.persuasion.community/p/an-ai-cras...
An AI Crash Is a Real Possibility
The industry is badly overleveraged and that's unlikely to change.
persuasion.community
Netflix is casting for a Monopoly reality show where 12 people fight to build a monopoly on a life-sized board. Their antitrust lawyers must be sitting somewhere hoping nobody notices the metaphor right in front of them. www.usatoday.com/story/entert...
Netflix wants you to apply to its new game show with $2M prize
Netflix opens casting for a competition series inviting applicants to join a life‑size version of a classic board game.
usatoday.com
We can't overstate what a terrible idea this is: cmdg.tech/publications...
Press Freedom Groups Urge FCC Not to Abandon Checks on Corporate Media Consolidation — Center for Media & Digital Governance
The Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute joined with 15 leading press freedom groups, civil liberties organizations and labor unions to urge the Federal Communications Commi...
cmdg.tech
Ars Technica@arstechnica.com · 3w ago
I'm leading 12 states in challenging the proposed merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount and asking the court to block the deal. CA's film and entertainment industry touches the lives of Americans daily. We’re going to court to fight for a free and fair market and protect this iconic industry.
🚨 News we've been waiting for: 12 states will challenge the Paramount-Warner Bros merger.
Catch the latest Food & Power - open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...
Screwworm Watch, What the Pest Means for U.S. Ranchers and Beef Prices
This flesh-eating parasite could further shrink a small U.S. cattle herd and raise beef prices. Politico reports that Trump’s funding freeze and staffing cuts delayed USDA’s response.
open.substack.com
When dominant tech platforms dictate the terms for journalism, they gain extraordinary power over the information citizens depend on. France's Meta ruling recognizes that protecting independent media is also about protecting democratic sovereignty. www.openmarketsinstitute.eu/publications...
OMI on French Meta Ruling: ‘This Is About Sovereignty and Democracy as Much as Competition’ — OMI Europe
This decision is about European sovereignty and democracy as much as competition or bargaining power.
openmarketsinstitute.eu
WEDNESDAY: Join @juliaioffe.bsky.social with @alexandrageese.eurosky.social, Amb. Katherine Tai, Aya Ibrahim, & @mattduss.bsky.social for a panel on how private power has shaped America's role in the world, & what a truly democratic foreign policy that puts people first could look like.
