Monopoly Guilty, DTC Exit and Instagram's Late Arrival

Alex is out sick this week, so Mal’s flying solo — which means the takes are unfiltered and the tangents are entirely his fault. Five stories this episode spanning a landmark US antitrust verdict, a celebrated Australian DTC brand heading to market, Instagram finally arriving late to the social commerce party, and two quickies on what happens when platforms change the rules and consumers start stockpiling baked beans.

This is a big week. The Live Nation verdict dropped yesterday — a federal jury found the concert giant guilty of operating an illegal monopoly, and the implications stretch well beyond live music into how we all think about platform dependency and vertical integration. If you build your business on infrastructure you don’t own, this one’s worth your full attention.

• Etsy bans all fur products from 11 August — why activist-driven platform policy changes are a channel risk every marketplace seller needs to account for.

• Panic buying hits Australian supermarkets amid Iran jitters — what demand volatility events reveal about inventory planning assumptions.

• Live Nation found guilty of operating an illegal monopoly — breaking down the verdict, the potential breakup, and why the Ticketmaster tax is a warning shot for every operator building on platforms they don’t control.

• al.ive body — the skincare brand built by The Block twins Alisa and Lysandra Fraser — is heading to market, and it’s a masterclass in building an exit-ready DTC business without venture capital.

• Instagram finally launches shoppable affiliate links for Reels — nearly 15 years after affiliate marketing became standard, and why the creator economy’s real problem is still measurement, not features.