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Switching friction is not the same as a monopoly. The distinction is not that hard to draw and I think we should regulate the latter, not the former.


If the friction is high enough, antitrust law has always seen that as bearing on the definition of the relevant market. You can’t lock people in and then start charging monopoly prices with impunity. One issue is what happens when the stickiness is mostly psychological friction instead of something that an economist analyzing rational action would see as a barrier. These are laws for people, after all, not for hypothetical rational beings.




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