Government Regulation of Consumer Interests: Antitrust Laws & Lobbying - Prof. Patricia J., Study notes of Production and Operations Management

Download Government Regulation of Consumer Interests: Antitrust Laws & Lobbying - Prof. Patricia J. and more Study notes Production and Operations Management in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 10: Government Regulation of Consumer Interests 1. Antitrust- AT&T and T-Mobile: This issue (the merger and possible block of the merger) affects us by having more competitors in the marketplace resulting in lower prices 2. Who benefits from the enforcement of antitrust laws to prevent such mergers? Who will lose? Some consumers would benefit while others may lose out on better coverage because if AT&T had bought out T-Mobile Basics  Congress has authority for consumer protection o Commerce clause of constitution  Feds influence interstate commerce  States influence intrastate commerce  Supremacy clause of Constitution o Preemption (fed laws preempt state laws) Special Interest Groups  A group of persons that attempts to influence government decisions as it appeals for special consideration for its own particular concerns o Medical Service Providers (AMA) o An Industry (drugs, health, tobacco) o Consumers over age 50 (AARP) o Environmentalists Lobbyists  Try to influence legislators and regulators to take a particular action that favors a special interest they represent o Ex: sugar beet growers  Lobbyists are required to register with the government, more than 35,000 lobbyists in the U.S. and are at the state and federal level. There are about 300 to 350 per government official Consumer Lobbyists  National Consumer League  Consumer Federation of America  Consumers Union  U.S. Public Interest Research Group  Public Citizen- founded by Ralph Nader (most well-known consumer activist)  Congress Watch  Center for the Study of Responsive Law- also founded by Ralph Nader  Neg-Reg (Negotiation-Regulation)  Interested groups meet with facilitator o Quicker o cheaper  Published in Federal Register  Process takes about a year or two  Purpose is to come to compromise amongst interest groups Administrative Agencies  Created through legislation  Delegated regulatory authority to carry out legislation  Given specific powers Executive and Independent Agencies  Executive Agencies o Philosophy and budget from executive o Federal: OMB, NHTSA, FDA o State: Department of Agriculture  Independent Agencies o Politically autonomous and self-governing o Accountable directly to legislature Consumer Laws and Regulations  Protect consumers from health and safety aspects of products they cannot evaluate themselves  Protect consumers from unfair treatment  Promote availability of more adequate information Benefit-Cost Analysis  Technique to compare benefits and cost  Consider net benefit  Imprecise science requiring many assumptions  Care must be taken to avoid bias Problems of Using Laws and Money to Solve Problems  Increasing expenditures  No measure of effectiveness