Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law, spoke with several news outlets in the U.S. and abroad recently concerning antitrust developments. 

Sagers spoke with the tech industry magazine Wired for a story about the remarkable, breaking news of a conflict between Apple and Epic Games, maker of the wildly popular game Fortnite. The case brings to a head some years of controversy over Apple’s maintenance of the App Store, as software developers have long complained about the rules Apple imposes on them and their view that it does so with a purpose to maintain anticompetitive dominance over mobile software distribution. 

He was quoted in a story in the independent investigative news service Pro Publica, concerning a proposed merger in the online tax-prep industry. The deal, undertaken in a heavily concentrated industry that was already the subject of a rare, fully-litigated merger challenge only a few years ago, is particularly interesting in that it involves acquisition of a very small rival, but nevertheless poses special competition concerns because of that rival’s maverick, disruptive nature. If successful challenge is brought, the case might be important precedent for other important sectors, as in Silicon Valley and mass communications, in which many now regret that many such deals have been approved over the last few decades.

Sagers was also quoted by Agence France Presse wire story carried internationally concerning the closely watched congressional testimony of four Big Tech CEOs, the culmination of a year-long investigation into possible antitrust violations by House Judiciary Democrats, and was interviewed about the hearing on a daily news program on BFM radio in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.