
Director of Economic Research @LawEconCenter. Adjunct Professor @Portland_State. Expert witness and consultant in economics, finance & statistics.
Portland, OR
Joined June 2008
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NYC’s proposed POWER Act aims to target predatory practices but could expose ordinary small businesses to crushing liability—like a neighborhood restaurant facing $750,000 over disputed delivery fees.
By handing broad enforcement to private plaintiffs with $2,500-per-violation penalties and vague standards, the bill risks turning consumer protection into an extortionate settlement racket.
Read the whole thing here: washingtonexaminer.com/op-ed…
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
Could 300 disputed delivery fees expose a restaurant to $750,000 in statutory damages?
NYC’s proposed POWER Act aims to protect consumers, but its broad rules and $2,500-per-violation awards could reward lawsuits against ordinary businesses. @ericfruits in @dcexaminer 🔗⬇️
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
The common thread: access to Portland's labor pool without Oregon's income tax. bizjournals.com/portland/new…
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
State governments are hurting local communities by pausing data center development to score political points.
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
Opinion: The freedom to challenge the government cannot depend on whether officials approve of the challenge. usatoday.com/story/opinion/2…
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
Opinion: The freedom to challenge the government cannot depend on whether officials approve of the challenge. usatoday.com/story/opinion/2…
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
The DMA prohibits self-preferencing in search rankings. The Commission’s interpretation extends that prohibition to website design.
@laz_radic & @AuerDirk argue that Article 6(5) does not cover every link or button, and that platforms may remove useful features rather than give rivals equal prominence. 🔗⬇️
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
There are very real questions as to whether these counts are consistent with the First Amendment, specifically Meta's right to editorial discretion over what it chooses to publish as recognized by the Supreme Court in Moody v. NetChoice
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
Merger error costs aren’t symmetric. Clear a harmful merger, and Article 102 and new entry can address the harm. Block a beneficial one, and products never launch.
In a @SCOPE_GE interview, @geoffmanne applies Easterbrook’s error-cost logic to the draft EU Merger Guidelines. 🔗⬇️
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
“May,” “could,” “potentially” are not “any evidence of that actually happening” that @nmeyersohn requested. Then-Commissioner Ferguson called out the difference.
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
ICLE’s @MZunigaP participated in FLACC 2026 in Buenos Aires, hosted by Argentina’s competition authority and co-organized by @ocdeenespanol and @el_BID.
Topics included competition law in informal markets, early resolution of cartel cases, and competition and FDI.
La #CONACOM participó en el Foro Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Competencia
Desarrollado los días 13 y 14 de octubre de 2026 en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, organizado conjuntamente por la @ocdeenespanol y el @el_BID
➡️ conacom.gov.py/la-conacom-pa…
#GobiernoDelParaguay
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
When a cartel cuts supply, outsiders can charge more without cutting sales. Shared owners may collect part of those gains.
@ericfruits on what Swedish cartel data reveal about ownership and control. 🔗⬇️
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
The Second Circuit treated Nielsen’s standalone offer as a “constructive tie.”
ICLE’s amicus brief in Nielsen v. Cumulus asks the Supreme Court to review the ruling, arguing that the panel’s pricing standard cannot distinguish exclusion from price competition. 🔗⬇️
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
If you need to travel between the Pacific Northwest hubs of Seattle and Portland, a number of options can get the job done. There’s driving, Amtrak, and of course flying via Alaska or Delta from SeaTac. But there’s also little known SeaPort Airlines.
A small, Part 135 commuter airline, SeaPort operates flights from Portland International Airport (PDX) and Seattle’s close-in Boeing Field (BFI). They also recently started service to Spokane, Washington.
I’ve known about SeaPort for some time, but hadn’t seriously considered flying them until a last minute day trip down to Oregon popped up.
The carrier offers a handful of fare buckets, which differ primarily on change, cancellation and refund fees. Every fare comes with 50 pounds of baggage included. I bought a last-minute ticket at $329, priced exactly equal to a basic economy fare on PDX-SEA for the same day.
I walked up to the PDX “terminal” a half hour before departure on the day of the flight. In Portland, at least, the airline operates out of its own space, which is separate from the main terminal by about a half mile.
The space is small but serviceable, with some lounge-style seating and a small table with self-serve coffee, tea and water. It isn’t anything to brag about, but then its not a space you’re supposed to hang out at for any length of time. With no security to deal with and a maximum of nine other passengers on any given flight, the airline says you can show up as little as 20 minutes before departure.
Check-in was quick and easy; I only had to provide my name. My small backpack was weighed, as all bags are, before the agent added a BFI tag to it. Larger bags were placed in a bag cart right away, while smaller bags like mine could be held onto until boarding.
With all the passengers already checked in, a friendly pilot figured we might as well get to it and walked us out to the plane a little ahead of schedule.
Seating on the aircraft, a Swiss-made Pilatus PC-12, is open. There are nine-seats in a 1-1 configuration, plus space in the rear of the cabin for bags.
Being a small, single-engine airplane, the cabin ceiling is low and the space is a bit cozy. Still, it’s noticeably more roomy than, say, a Cessna Grand Caravan.
Full trip report: runwaygirlnetwork.com/2026/1…
By Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren #nosetotail #paxex #avgeek
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
Bring back fin-syn? Washington should skip the rerun. @raylehmann on how overlapping mandates could limit funding for shows viewers most want. 🔗⬇️
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
Do "choice screens" work? Were they a solution to a real problem? Check this post by @ericfruits and @AuerDirk and answer these questions yourself.
"We Measured Europe’s Browser Revolution. Bring a Magnifying Glass." truthonthemarket.com/2026/10…
Also, credit where credit is due ... this dashboard from @PPSConnect is the most useful thing they've put out about the planned school closures. pps.net/about/portland-publi…
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
Network law review just published a good neo-Brandeis symposium with some actual diversity of authors.
networklawreview.org/special…
Eric Fruits, Ph.D. retweeted
Mario Zuniga has a good piece this morning on anti-tech bias in the EU’s guidelines on exclusionary practices. Will the Brussels effect spread this bias to other jurisdictions? truthonthemarket.com/2026/10…






























