U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono, alongside Senator Amy Klobuchar and 12 other colleagues, has reintroduced a bill aimed at revitalizing America's antitrust laws to restore competition in U.S. markets. The Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act seeks to provide federal enforcers with necessary resources, enhance prohibitions on anticompetitive conduct and mergers, and introduce reforms for improved enforcement.
Senator Hirono emphasized the impact of concentrated markets, stating, "Highly concentrated markets mean that a handful of corporations dominate industries, effectively raising prices, reducing competition, and ultimately hurting consumers and workers alike." She highlighted the importance of holding large corporations accountable to maintain competitive markets.
The bill addresses industry consolidation due to increasing mergers and acquisitions where big companies acquire rivals before they become threats. It targets exclusionary practices by dominant firms that suppress competition. The U.S. has lagged behind other developed countries in enforcing antitrust laws against powerful firms, especially digital platforms.
Key provisions of the bill include increasing enforcement resources by authorizing budget increases for agencies and ensuring fees from mergers are used for enforcement work. It also aims to strengthen prohibitions against anticompetitive mergers by updating legal standards under Section 7 of the Clayton Act and shifting the burden onto merging parties to prove legality.
The legislation proposes preventing harmful conduct by dominant firms through a new provision under the Clayton Act that prohibits "exclusionary conduct" posing an "appreciable risk of harming competition." Additionally, it suggests establishing a new FTC division for market studies and merger retrospectives.
Further reforms include seeking civil fines for antitrust violations, studying past mergers' effects, strengthening whistleblower protections, forbidding forced arbitration in class action lawsuits, among others.
The American Antitrust Institute, Consumer Reports, Open Markets Institute, Public Knowledge, COSAL endorse this legislation along with several antitrust scholars including Professor Jonathan Baker (emeritus) from American University Washington College of Law; Professor Nancy Rose from MIT; Professor Steven Salop (emeritus) from Georgetown University Law Center; Professor Fiona Scott Morton from Yale University School of Management; Bill Baer former Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust; Gene Kimmelman former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust; Professor John Newman from University of Miami; Professor Martin Gaynor former Director of FTC Bureau of Economics.
Cosponsors include Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Peter Welch (D-VT), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Ron Wyden (D-OR).