US FTC's Meador challenges reliance on Hovenkamp-Areeda treatise
( November 11, 2026, 01:07 GMT | Official Statement) -- MLex Summary: In a new paper, US Federal Trade Commissioner Mark Meador and his chief of staff and attorney advisor Daniel Graulich challenged courts' reliance on the influential Areeda-Hovenkamp antitrust treatise, arguing that it sometimes advances economic propositions without identifying the theoretical or empirical literature supporting them. They urged judges to consult a broader range of scholarship and prioritize careful analysis "of the record at hand" in cases. "Citation frequency may demonstrate influence, but it does not establish that the cited source correctly states the law or that its underlying economic judgments are sound," they wrote. The criticism forms part of a broader response to an amicus brief by Herbert Hovenkamp and Daniel Crane addressing whether business practices that escape antitrust liability individually can be assessed together as an anticompetitive course of conduct.See attached document....
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