anti-monopoly law and policy at @econliberties. post a lot about corporate abuse and the scam economy.
San Francisco, California
Joined May 2010
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I have a piece up at Economic Populist about California's new ban on coercive pricing algorithms.
The new state law rejects federal precedents that have thwarted enforcement against market rigging algorithms.
The implications for tech platforms are vast. economicpopulist.substack.co…
Lee Hepner retweeted
Lina Khan: “There had been some speculation in the past that if push came to shove. The monopolists, the CEOs, the titans of industry would ultimately stand up for democracy and be on the side of the rule of law. When given the chance these past few months, they've all just bent the knee. Time after time, they’ve chosen self-enrichment...” #crookedcon2025
I don’t know why this should be complicated at all.
Why should ANY elected official be fundraising from people whose contracts they are simultaneously approving?
It is literal pay to play! It is corrupt!
Lee Hepner retweeted
Classic. The Biden Administration pushed back against consolidation in the meat industry, the Trump Administration rolled back that push, now Trump has discovered the issue because people are mad about the price of beef.
economicliberties.us/press-r…
Lurie is already under fire for procurement conflicts - OpenGov, an entity he is entangled with politically and financially, and a $9M gift from crypto exec Chris Larsen for the purchase of surveillance drones owned by A16z.
Encouraging to see @sfstandard and @MLNow digging in.
Lurie is proving himself an affable Mayor, but if he’s not careful, pay-to-play solicitations will be his downfall.
City officials have already sought *15* exemptions from the law this year - a 300% increase from the scandal-laden Breed years!
As corruption takes center stage federally, SF Supervisors are trying to exempt themselves from an anti-corruption law that forbids them from soliciting bribes from city contractors.
A mere 5 years after it turned the page on a decade of scandal that toppled 6 department heads!
Should supervisors be able to ask for donations from people who have contracts with the city?
New legislation proposed by Supervisor Mandelman would allow just that.
via @io_y_g
missionlocal.org/2025/11/sf-…
Lee Hepner retweeted
I don’t think any outlet but @Law360 reported on this today, but apparently the judge said “not so fast” on the Google/Epic proposed settlement and may seek a more significant sacrifice from Google.
Exciting news! Together with Epic Games we have filed a proposed set of changes to Android and Google Play that focus on expanding developer choice and flexibility, lowering fees, and encouraging more competition all while keeping users safe. If approved, this would resolve our litigations. We look forward to discussing further with the Judge on Thursday.
Lee Hepner retweeted
Lina Khan: “Candidly at this moment when we are seeing unprecedented levels of corruption from the Republican Party and total pay to play, the idea that our response to that should be, ‘okay, maybe we should be a little bit more corrupt too’ is frankly mind boggling to me.” #crookedcon2025
Lee Hepner retweeted
“will you reappoint lina khan” was literally one of the very few questions my union (a very large one) asked as a guarantee for endorsement recommendation
Washington, DC punches way above its weight for a city with a population one twelfth the size of NYC.
There is no reason why NYC or any other city shouldn’t be rigorously enforcing against wage theft, employer-driven debt “TRAPs,” and noncompetes.
Lee Hepner retweeted
Judge Mehta deep-sixed meaningful remedies precisely (in part) because of Mozilla's patronage *dependence* on Google
But sure, Jan
A "statement of amicus curiae independence."
Up is down. Peace is war. Remedies are non-remedies. Nothing matters.
Lee Hepner retweeted
We're witnessing the culminating rot of shareholder capitalism in real time.
Some of the most powerful corporations in America have sided with an authoritarian regime in order to protect their short term profits — the fundamental rights of everyone else be damned.
The airlines are becoming rideshare companies are becoming package delivery providers are becoming surveillance data brokers.
It's an enshittification and platform extraction play.
Lyft, United Airlines launch loyalty program months after Delta partnership ends cnbc.com/2025/11/05/lyft-uni…
Lee Hepner retweeted
One big lesson from the elections: electricity prices are a top-tier political issue. The 2 Dems who won seats on the top utility regulator in Georgia overperformed Kamala Harris by 28 points(!) Mikie Sherrill ran on freezing rates.
There's an agenda here.
prospect.org/2025/11/06/elec…
DOJ can’t let up on the Search or Ad Tech cases for a few reasons, including that it would attract top-of-fold scrutiny from across the spectrum.
But waive through a $32B acquisition to give Google a vector for control over Wiz clients AWS, Azure, Alibaba? Easy to ignore!
This is the kind of blunt corruption that most won’t notice: Two weeks after Google gave $22M to Trump’s Ballroom, DOJ just cleared Google’s largest acquisition ever.
Wiz is one of the fastest growing companies of all time, providing cloud cybersecurity to 40% of the Fortune 100
