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Kevin Coates

@kevincoates.bsky.social
1.1K followers 3.2K following 562 posts

Antitrust / competition law and tech regulation partner @ Covington, ex DG COMP. Brussels and Brighton.

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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
More anecdata that the real social media problem isn’t the under 15s it’s the more than 50s.
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oandriychuk.bsky.social @oandriychuk.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
The debate surrounding the evolution of goals of competition policy often polarises into two distinct philosophical camps. To explore these competing approaches, Or Brook and I hosted a discussion between Jorge Padilla and Ariel Ezrachi. 🎬 www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA3p...
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
A good piece. The European context is different-regulators *tend* not to put up with this and it can be counter-productive. A party once wanted to define the product market on one of my cases as “leisure time activities” which was easy to rebut. www.twentyfirstcenturycompetition.com/2014/09/gild...
twentyfirstcenturycompetition.com
Gilding Refined Gold and Painting the Lily - 21st Century Competition
Therefore, to be possess’d with double pomp, To guard a title that was rich before, To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unt...
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
🎶Happy birthday to ya, happy birthday to ya, happy birthday🎶
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
[Yoda voice]: The lack of self awareness is strong in this one.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
brucespringsteen.net/news/2026/st... As Bono said, there’s only one boss in America.
brucespringsteen.net
Streets Of Minneapolis | Bruce Springsteen
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis,...
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
Some in FIFA apparently worried that association with Trump will “tarnish their reputation”. Really hard to know where to start with that.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
It’s hard to think of anyone more likely than Farage to be voted out in round one of the next #traitors.
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Candida Leone @candidaleone.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
In case someone (v much thinking of certain Competition Law colleagues and a certain Linkedin spat) wants to again explain how EU enforcement against X was totally biased and a form of protectionism.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
For anyone that needs a good news story (which is pretty much all of us).
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James Felton @jimmfelton.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
I don't really post anymore, but I would like to carry on writing books at some point in the future. Hate to be annoying, but any chance you could retweet so old twitter followers can find me if they want to? Going to delete my twitter, or at least abandon it on lock and let it die a slow death.
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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
We're hiring.......
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
“Are you speaking to Truong from the percentage?” Really loving Apple Intelligence summaries on my new phone.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Iain M Banks would have approved.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
“When I use a word…” Humphrey Dumpty said…
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Well it’s definitely a view.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
One of the “meta” rules about competition (and competition policy) is that it’s generally not a good idea to let control over one layer of a system allow control over other layers as well. 1/x
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Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Six years ago, almost to the day, Apple removing a similar app from the Hong Kong App Store was seen as such a breach that Tim Cook wrote an all staff email to defend it www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Tim Cook defends Apple's removal of Hong Kong mapping app
Apple chief said in a letter HKmap.live was ‘used maliciously to target’ officers as claim was disputed by protesters on the ground
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
This is a pretty good argument in support of the EU’s DMA which requires alternative app stores.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
48/52. The cursèd ratio.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
What have the Normans ever done for us?
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
How do you even engage with this level of madness?
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Tim Wu @superwuster.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
On a panel with Larry Summers today, he argued that the "calamitous " election of Zohran Mamdani is (at least in part) a byproduct of abandoning the consumer welfare standard in antitrust.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
@thombrooks.bsky.social Thom, sounds fantastic but this doesn’t look right, unless you’re planning very long introductory remarks!
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
“Mish and Lucy made their way to the food store after breaking free - before consuming a "week's worth of honey". Just the bear necessities.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
If nobody wants them then they aren’t worth 800m. They probably have decent scrap metal value though given they’re basically steel boxes. www.vice.com/en/article/t...
vice.com
Tesla Reportedly Has $800 Million Worth of Cybertrucks That Nobody Wants
Tesla is overstocked with Cybertrucks, the PS1 graphics-looking mobile monument to Elon’s deep lack of creativity.
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John Cotter @drjohncotter.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
It seems to me a principle of EU law is emerging, if not already there, that in any area in which Member States exercise competence and the exercise of that competence can undermine a core value/principle/concept of Union law, there is a “don’t-take-the-piss” doctrine that allows EU-law review.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Best summary of the Malta decision I’ve seen.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
The children will be self-driving before Teslas will.
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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Now in today's Observer. www.theguardian.com/education/20... Yet Oxford are still spending far more on legal fees fighting this than it would cost to honour their employment law obligations. You have to wonder, who really runs Oxford University, and in whose interests?
theguardian.com
‘I’ve lost my work and been ostracised’: Oxford University accused of failing to act after ruling on ‘sham’ contracts
Despite winning a landmark legal battle, academic Alice Jolly believes it won’t benefit others
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
A good reminder that competition authorities should never neglect the basics (as Richard Whish has argued for years).
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Justus Haucap @haucap.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
The Gradual Impact of Sanctioning #Cartels on Market Competition. Sergio Pelaez (#GeorgiaTech) & @juandgut.bsky.social (#UnidelosAndes) examine the impact of cartel enforcement on market competition with focus on manufacturing firms in Colombia. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
The Gradual Impact of Sanctioning Cartels on Market Competition - Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade
This paper examines the impact of cartel enforcement actions—particularly investigations resulting in fines—on market competition, with a focus on manufacturing firms in Colombia to draw broader impli...
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Holger Hestermeyer @hhesterm.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
OK. There will be a massive rearmament in Europe. And the simple choice is: as nation states, with the constant possibility of conflicts - or together. I hope that there are some politicians left who have understood the wisdom of a Jean Monnet.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
And a useful follow up.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Excellent thread, though personally disappointed that the “red face test” doesn’t appear.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
👏
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Private practice competition lawyers like me often get paid to oppose interventions by competition agencies. It’s interesting that the chatter is very much “well this will be good for our clients; bad for the economy though.”
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Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
This paper by the late, great Nick Crafts, on competition and productivity in the UK, well worth a read: cepr.org/voxeu/column...
cepr.org
Competition cured the “British Disease”
Britain’s relative economic decline throughout the 20th century – the so-called “British disease” – was a national embarrassment that only went away in the 1980s. This column presents new research showing that competition provided the cure. Only when Britain returned to a regime of competition and openness similar to that which had prevailed before World War I did productivity growth resume.
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Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Hm, I can see myself having to say pretty often that enforcing competition so markets work in the interests of customers means there is *less* need for regulation of other kinds.
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Stephen Kinsella @stephenstroud.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Another successful outcome from a case we backed.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
This cites @proffionasm.bsky.social ‘s excellent Promarket piece on the US consumer welfare standard. It’s worth bearing in mind though that EU antitrust takes a broader view of consumer welfare so I’m not sure all the criticism is well-founded.
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Piratenpartij Nederland @piratenpartij.nl · 30/12/2024
Competition policy only examines the short-term effects on consumer prices. The harms to workers and small business owners are not taken into account. To rectify this, the Pirate Party proposes adopting a modern science-based competition standard. piratenpartij.nl/bijdrage-pir...
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Hard mode can be annoying. Wordle 1,290 6/6* ⬛⬛🟩🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Lots of comments that Carter wasn’t a great President. But possibly one of the greatest men ever to be President.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
1 of many flaws is that next Parliament could undo changes before they ever have effect. - we’re worried about foreign interference - we ban foreign interference but only in the election after next - foreign interference in the next election leads to a gov that repeals for’n interference law
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John Springford @johnspringford.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Silly headline, silly piece.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Factually quite ropey too, confusing the GDPR (adopted pre referendum), the competition rules and the DMA. No fines yet under the DMA. And he seems blissfully unaware of the UK’s own tech regulation.
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
The new competition Commissioner’s first major speech at a competition event. #brusselsconference_cra
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Kevin Coates @kevincoates.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
The current panel session at the big CRA Brussels antitrust conference has two big proponents of behavioural economics. I doubt this would have happened even five years ago. #brusselsconference_cra
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