Dechert LLP antitrust partner Alec Burnside has been named winner of a Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award as part of this year’s Burton Awards, a legal writing contest co-sponsored by the American Bar Association. Burnside was selected for his article, “Bob Dylan and consumer welfare,” a paper first delivered at a conference in Oxford University in May 2017.
In his article, Burnside outlines the case for redefining consumer welfare away from its old Chicago School fixation on price effects. There is often no “price” to measure in the internet age, when consumers pay for supposedly free internet services by surrendering their personal data. Employing Dylan’s lyricism to illustrate elements of his argument, Burnside calls on the antitrust community to look at the offline effects of online services, and vindicate the interests of individuals beyond mere consumerism.
Burnside, who covers European Union competition law from Dechert’s Brussels office, concentrates on merger clearances, state aid, cartel defense and abuse of dominance. Over his three decades in Brussels he has been at the center of some of the highest-profile competition cases, for example advising complainants in the recent €2.4bn fine on Google. Over the course of a decade he defended Aer Lingus from repeated hostile takeover bids by rival Ryanair, successfully expelling Ryanair from the share register and allowing Aer Lingus to merge with IAG. Recommended by all the major legal directories, he is an active commentator in antitrust policy debates, currently with a particular focus on tech and Big Data.
Winners at the Burton Awards will be honored at a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on May 21.
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