The higher than needed fees locking out competitors. Even if they didn't actually 'capture' them it is still regulation supporting their business model without a justifying good. Seat belts being compulsory may make more money for seat belt manufacturers but it isn't regulatory capture because it serves an actual purpose. Requiring all seatbelts be sourced domestically to shut out competitors would be regulatory capture however.
Are you seriously suggesting that PACER fees have any impact on competition? That’s like saying toll roads protect the business model of taxi companies. It’s completely nonsensical.
I am saying that taxi medallions have an impact on competition - that is a more appropriate analogy given the magnitude. It boosts the start up expense of competition considerably as opposed to just processing and serving the data at a discounted rate as a 'mirror'. Assuming about 30 KiB per page a mere Gigabyte comes out to about ~$3500. Which is vastly more than the about $0.08 of cost of 1 GB storage space.
It is a well known phenomenon given things like how quixotic the article 13 upload filter is because the expense locks out new competitors.
