This New US Antitrust Bill Could Be The End Of Big Tech Mergers As We Know It

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), the new chair of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, introduced a bill that would make sweeping reforms to competition laws and antitrust enforcement that places companies that sell the technology we love straight into their anti-competitive reticule.

The Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Bill outlines the new administration’s policies and attitude towards anti-competitive behavior in several key areas. One is the idea of ​​projecting investigative costs more onto companies that defend their practices; the other is a set of consumer protection measures, such as requiring licensed companies to merge or buy another to show how they have kept their relevant industries competitive since the initial hearings.

It is important not to become attached to any of the proposed changes at this time, as this is a bill that must be passed by Congress. Although with closer scrutiny from both sides of recent initiatives from companies like Facebook and Google, there should be a lot of bipartisan support. Klobuchar is confident that her bill will have the voices, and explains why we need these changes in the Wall Street Journal:

“We have a growing monopoly problem, which is really evidenced by what’s going on with technology, but which also spans the whole economy. Our laws need to be as sophisticated as those that interfere with competition. “

Yet Big Tech warns against all kinds of sweeping reforms. Business associations and lobby groups say that restricting large companies will ultimately penalize smaller ones and that there will be a lot of crackdown on any change from the companies whose products and services we use every day.

If the enactment of the Competition Law Enforcement and Antitrust Law Enforcement Law was to be sufficiently supported, there are some important key points that would strengthen antitrust investigation and enforcement. A synopsis from CNBC:

• Raising the bar for dominant undertakings seeking to merge with other undertakings, in particular by shifting the burden of proof to the merging parties.
• Add a ban on “exclusionary conduct” to the Clayton Act, which governs mergers, to make it more difficult for dominant firms to prove that their mergers will not harm competition if they engage in such acts . Exclusionary conduct would include acts that disadvantage current or potential competitors or limit the ability or incentive of competitors to compete.
• Authorize increases of $ 300 million to the annual budgets of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforce antitrust laws.
• Allow antitrust law enforcement officials to seek civil penalties for violations of the monopoly law and the exclusionary behavior offense created by the bill, in addition to other remedies they can already claim, such as breakages and injunctions.
• Established an independent office of the competition lawyer within the FTC that can perform market analysis to inform law enforcement and help raise consumer complaints.
• Require merged companies to inform agencies of the results of their transactions and that agencies study the impacts of past mergers.
• Extend whistleblower incentives to those who report potential civil violations.

The last two points here are exceptionally interesting and what big business and special interest lobby groups will fight tooth and nail against. Imagine if Facebook was forced to come up with an annual report on its WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions instead of ultimately being forced to answer tough questions from the US House in 2020? Or whether a Facebook employee would be protected from backlash if they decided to report issues they saw. It’s a safe bet that similar skeletons can be found in the closet of every big tech company, which seems like bad news for big players.

A government is in place to protect and serve people, not businesses. We need a watchdog with real teeth.

But governments are not in place to protect the big players. They are placed to protect all of us, especially against opponents whose resources are seemingly limitless. The Competition Law Enforcement and Antitrust Law Reform Act is unlikely to pass as written, but we can hope it retains enough force to effectively counter some very bad FTC rulings. in the past.

Big Tech doesn’t have to be our enemy, and it wasn’t that long ago. We will probably never return to those days, so we need an effective watchdog who has our best interests in mind.

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