Antitrust

Senator Klobuchar’s New Bill Takes Promising Approach to Rebooting Antitrust Enforcement and Restoring Competitive Markets

Decades of Corporate Concentration and Meager Oversight Have Encouraged Anti-Consumer Practices

 |  Press Release

Washington, D.C. — The Consumer Federation of America applauds Senator Amy Klobuchar’s desperately needed Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act. The bill, introduced last week, addresses the necessity for strong enforcement and modernized antitrust legislation in the face of growing corporate concentration and market power abuse. CFA has previously advocated for reforms to the nation’s antitrust laws that center flexibility and robust enforcement.

“Senator Klobuchar’s bill is an important step in the right direction,” said Amina Abdu, CFA’s Antitrust Advocacy Associate. “For decades, market power has been allowed to grow unchecked, with little scrutiny given to blatantly anticompetitive mergers or conduct. This bill is a long overdue effort to redress these harms and protect consumers from rampant market power abuse.”

“Enforcement has always been the cornerstone of antitrust. We are excited to see a bill that recognizes this and takes steps to strengthen oversight, while refusing to have Congress try to make decisions that are better left to the expert agencies,” said Mark Cooper, CFA’s Director of Research.  “Klobuchar recognizes what Congress should and should not do.  Her bill reaffirms and clarifies goals, encourages and supports enforcement, and weeds out practices and defenses that should never have been allowed but have become embedded in antitrust practice. Importantly, it does all of this without setting specific limits or picking winners and losers among companies.”

In a recent article in Competition International, we have outlined the steps necessary for “Rebooting Antitrust and Regulation for Digital Communications.”

After the Trump administration’s effort to essentially repeal the Communications Act of 1934 and abandon the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) authority to other agencies, the U.S. must restore effective oversight and pull the strands of policy into a coherent overall approach. This effort will require a mix of regulatory and legislative actions including:

  1. Reversing the theory of “sufficient” competition and the deregulation to which it gave rise
  2. Asserting full Title II authority over nondiscrimination and universal service
  3. Bringing the full weight of Title II authority to bear on achieving universal service to broadband
  4. Restoring full dual jurisdiction by repealing the Trinko decision that quashes antitrust even when there is only a whiff of regulation present

The principles of antitrust and regulation must also be adapted to new industries given the enormous power wielded by dominant players in emerging industries such as Big Data Platforms. While the principles on which antitrust and regulation rest remain the same, these practices must be adapted to the new techno-economic relationships in the economy[i]. Antitrust and regulation need to be rebooted, after a long period of inactivity and explicitly redefined to meet the challenges of the new economy.

“We commend Senator Klobuchar for proposing a balanced and thoughtful approach to rebooting antitrust.  Congress needs to enact this legislation and let the agencies do their job before it tries to micromanage the structure of this vital sector,” concluded Cooper.

[i] Other recent CFA papers provide the historical grounding of this approach;  From Brandeis To Stiglitz: Into & Beyond The 2020 Election: The Brandeis Protocol and the Stiglitz Model Create a  Framework for Pragmatic, Progressive Capitalism, especially Chapter 4, https://consumerfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Pragmatic-Progressive-Capitalism-Report-8-13-20.pdf, and a detailed discussion of Big Data Platforms, A New Chokepoint in the Digital Communications Sector Meeting New Challenges with Successful Progressive Principles, especially, Chapter 5. https://consumerfed.org/reports/big-data-platforms-a-new-chokepoint-in-the-digital-communications-sector/

Contacts:
Mark Cooper, 301-384-2204
Amina Abdu, 202-656-1282

[i] Other recent CFA papers provide the historical grounding of this approach;  From Brandeis To Stiglitz: Into & Beyond The 2020 Election: The Brandeis Protocol and the Stiglitz Model Create a  Framework for Pragmatic, Progressive Capitalism, especially Chapter 4, https://consumerfed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Pragmatic-Progressive-Capitalism-Report-8-13-20.pdf, and a detailed discussion of Big Data Platforms, A New Chokepoint in the Digital Communications Sector Meeting New Challenges with Successful Progressive Principles, especially, Chapter 5. https://consumerfed.org/reports/big-data-platforms-a-new-chokepoint-in-the-digital-communications-sector/