Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2011
Keywords
search engines, essential facilities, antitrust, doctrine, Google, dominance
Abstract
When American lawyers talk about "essential facilities," they are usually referring to antitrust doctrine that has required certain platforms to provide access on fair and nondiscriminatory terms to all comers. Some have recently characterized Google as an essential facility. Antitrust law may shape the search engine industry in positive ways. However, scholars and activists must move beyond the crabbed vocabulary of competition policy to develop a richer normative critique of search engine dominance.
In this chapter, I sketch a new concept of "essential cultural and political facility," which can help policymakers recognize and address situations where a bottleneck has become important enough that special scrutiny is warranted. This scrutiny may not always culminate in regulation. However, it clearly suggests a need for publicly funded alternatives to the concentrated conduits and content providers colonizing the web.
Disciplines
Antitrust and Trade Regulation | Internet Law
Digital Commons Citation
In The Next Digital Decade: Essays on the Future of the Internet 401 (Berin Szoka & Adam Marcus eds., 2010).