CCPS Faculty William Murphy Named Finalist for International Sports and Entertainment Law Award

Assistant Professor William Murphy, J.D., from the Division of Criminal Justice, Legal Studies, and Homeland Security of The Lesley H. and William L. Collins College of Professional Studies, was recognized as a finalist for the Sports and Entertainment Law Award by the Academy of Legal Studies in Business at the organization’s annual conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, this past August. Prof. Murphy’s paper, “New Big to Fail: An Antitrust Analysis of Content-Internet Mergers Absent Net Neutrality” explores the legal and market implications of internet provider-content provider mergers under United States antitrust law after the repeal of Net Neutrality regulations. The Academy of Legal Studies in Business advances legal studies in business education and is the professional home for legal studies researchers and educators, fostering collegial relationships and productive collaboration with researchers, educators, and organizations throughout the world. The Academy of Legal Studies in Business Sports and Entertainment Law Award recognizes outstanding scholarship in the area of sports and entertainment law relating to business management. Other finalists for this year’s award included John Holden of Oklahoma State University, Marc Edelman of Baruch College, and Thomas Baker of the University of Georgia for their paper “A Short Treatise on Esports and the Law: How America Regulates its Next National Pastime,” as well as Mike Schuster of the University of Georgia, and David Mitchell and Kenneth Brown of Missouri State University for their paper “Sampling Increases Music Sales: An Empirical Copyright Study.” Focusing on the AT&T-Time Warner merger, Professor Murphy’s research indicates that absent Net Neutrality and the enforcement of its afforded safeguards, a potentially anticompetitive vertical integration scheme of this nature violates antitrust law as interpreted through established precedent of the United States Supreme Court. Acknowledging society’s perpetually increasing reliance on internet access and utilization of online streaming for content consumption, his paper next considers recognized antitrust exemptions historically applied by courts as a means of immunizing these mergers. Analyzing and disqualifying the potential application of exemptions for professional sports and media, the study concludes that instead deeming internet provider-content provider mergers to be “public utilities” exempt from antitrust law provides a legally sound, judicially convenient, and likely outcome of an eventual United States Supreme Court review of AT&T-Time Warner. “Without the blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization protections afforded by Net Neutrality, the vertical integration of AT&T’s internet service with Time Warner’s content library presumably violates the Sherman Anti-Trust Act under United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.. Should the U.S. Supreme Court grant certiorari pending the outcome of the current appeal, it is unlikely the Court will strictly apply its 1948 precedent however due to factors including the financial enormity of the merger and its potential impact on the growing cultural importance and norms of evolving digital streaming technology trending infinitely upward in utilization. Instead, the Court may seek to immunize internet provider-content provider mergers from antitrust law under an established exemption. Exemptions recognized for professional baseball and media would not apply with the former labeled an “anomaly” and the content at issue not equating to “political speech” required to invoke the latter. Conversely, labeling the AT&T-Time Warner merger a “public utility” exempt from antitrust law due to its providing of internet service to the public permits the Court to uphold the economically significant deal without overturning precedent while also offering clearer guidance on a largely unsettled legal issue to lower courts nationwide. The absence of a viable, government provided alternative to the resource of internet access, dormant FCC regulatory authority, and emerging FTC regulatory authority further support this conclusion.”