The Objective Standard Blog

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Advertisers vs. the Free Market

Posted by ARI Media at 11:40 pm

Washington, D.C.—The Association of National Advertisers, a trade association representing 400 companies, has asked the Justice Department to use antitrust law to halt a proposed Google-Yahoo search advertising partnership. The deal, the group claims, will “diminish competition,” increase Google and Yahoo’s “market power,” and “raise prices.”

“This call to prevent Google and Yahoo from collaborating is an attack on the free market,” said Alex Epstein, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. “Google and Yahoo, individually or combined, have no power to force anyone to advertise with them; their only power is the power to continually persuade advertisers that their services are the best use of advertisers’ money.

“If the members of the Association of National Advertisers object to the advertising options offered under a new Google and Yahoo partnership, there is a simple solution: don’t advertise with them. But they have no right to dictate to Google and Yahoo how to run their businesses.”

###  ### ###

Mr. Epstein’s op-eds and letters to the editor have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Canada’s National Post, and the Washington Times. He is also a contributing writer for The Objective Standard, a quarterly journal of culture and politics. Mr. Epstein has been a guest on numerous nationally syndicated radio programs.

Alex Epstein is available for interviews.
Contact: Larry Benson          
E-mail: media@aynrandcenter.org          
Phone: (949) 222-6550 ext. 213

For more information on Objectivism’s unique point of view, go to ARC’s Web site. The Ayn Rand Center is a division of the Ayn Rand Institute and promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

Posted in: Business and Economics