Laws that stop companies from selling stuff in bundles aren't actually helping you. You’re not saving any money.
March 27, 2026
Original Paper
The Futility of Antitrust Attacks on Tie-In Sales: An Economic and Legal Analysis
SSRN · 6469678
The Takeaway
Economic modeling shows that even when bundling (tie-in sales) is banned, companies can use other perfectly legal pricing strategies to extract the exact same amount of profit from consumers. The high cost of enforcing these antitrust rules often exceeds the benefits, as firms simply pivot to more complex ways of charging for the same goods.
From the abstract
<div> <div> The Supreme Court has consistently condemned tying arrangements as antitrust violations, primarily on the ground that they serve to extend a seller's monopoly power over the tying product into the tied product market. The Court's condemnation is premised on three objections: that tying arrangements (1) foreclose the seller's competitors from opportunities to make sales of the tied product, (2) make entry into the tying or tied product markets more difficult, and (3) displace buyers'