1/6 Are merger efficiencies just "make-believe"? The EU draft merger guidelines debate has revived hardline skepticism in some corners. The convo uses 4-3 telecom deals as bogeyman cases. Real-world cases however tell a different story. A🧵

1/ The big news of the week: the official launch of the Rhine Group by Mario Draghi, @patrickc, and @lugaricano. I’m honored to join as one of the few lawyers in this economics heavy group. Thread on why this initiative is different - and why it matters.

Quick thought on law school in the AI age. It is not about teaching contents. It’s about building and training cognitive muscle. I spent 5 days reading 2 Coase papers 📝. That mental sweat allowed me to cross my confidence threshold 1/n

When the Italian 🇮🇹 competition agency will be done toying with the issue of AI distribution on digital platforms, it can fix robocall harassment 👇, cab cartels 🚕, or the summer Bagno ripoff 🏖️

My @FinancialTimes letter: Europe just issued a good blueprint of merger rules oriented towards innovation and competitiveness. Here’s how to approach the next steps 1/n

No one has better debunked virtue signalling than Romain Gary. Independent and brave to the core. Bravo.

Judge Mehta enforced Section 2 against Google. He also warned👇that antitrust overreaches if it bars GenAI firms from using their own platforms to distribute models. US antitrust > EU DMA

The legal threat of national merger review over *any* deal hurts innovation. The @EU_Commission must get rid of this as a matter of urgency.

Merger agencies (including the European Commission) are looking for ways to credit innovation benefits in merger control. The challenge is operational: How do you assess innovation potential without sacrificing legal administrability or economic rigor?

Extortion by regulation playbook👇 Stage 1: open Sherman Act Section 2 investigation against @netflix in parallel to standard merger review Stage 2: drop case in exchange for a deal that increases Trump’s economic wealth or political clout.

Join us for the launch of The Constitution of Innovation, with @lugaricano & Bengt Holmström. We will discuss the EU's innovation gap w/ MEP @DarioNardella, @Fatassinari and other friends 📅6 Feb, 5 pm CET 📡 Buontalenti and online Register at eui.eu/events?id=584312

How did we get there? The @EU_Commission stopped enforcing single market law because it must play nice to Member States to pass legislation. And businesses have 0 incentives to litigate before foreign courts to obtain removal of obstacles to commerce 3/10

🧵In a recent piece, the @FT editors highlighted our “Constitution of Innovation” proposal to establish Federal EU Commercial Courts. What is this about? 1/10

J’ai relu Jean Monnet. Comme lui, je ne vois ni solution dans le neutralisme, ni espoir dans l’incrementalisme. Un choc est nécessaire qui passe par la mise en commun, ouverte à tous mais pas nécessairement à 27, des capacités technologiques et militaires européennes.

What dinners at the white house can buy.

Inflation + marketing in one picture.

1. The @FinancialTimes just highlighted how Prosus’ acquisition of @JustEatTakeaway, conditioned on divestiture, cuts against the @DraghiReport’s warnings: EU merger policy is raising indirect barriers to the very tech consolidation Europe needs.