As Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, Klobuchar highlighted new legislation to reinvigorate enforcement against anticompetitive conduct that harm consumers and innovation
WASHINGTON – At a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights on competition in digital markets, Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called for additional enforcement against anticompetitive abuses. Klobuchar highlighted the Anticompetitive Exclusionary Conduct Prevention Act that she introduced this week to reinvigorate enforcement against anticompetitive conduct that harms consumers and innovation.
“Americans know intuitively that competition is key to the health of our markets, the future of our economy, and their own prosperity. They know that our country has a monopoly problem, which is what I think we should be focusing on,” Klobuchar said in her opening remarks.
“My focus today is also on improving enforcement against anticompetitive exclusionary conduct—and I don’t just mean problematic self-preferencing by Big Tech companies—I mean anticompetitive conduct in every sector of the economy,” Klobuchar continued.
“That is why, today, I am introducing the Anticompetitive Exclusionary Conduct Prevention Act with Senators Blumenthal and Booker. I am pleased that we have worked together on this bill.
“This legislation would reinvigorate enforcement against anticompetitive conduct and enable enforcers to protect competition across our entire economy.”
For video footage of Klobuchar’s remarks, click HERE.
In her role as Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, Senator Klobuchar has championed efforts to protect consumers, promote competition, and fight consolidation in major industrial sectors, including the telecommunications, technology, agriculture, and pharmaceutical sectors.
This week, Klobuchar introduced new legislation to deter anticompetitive abuses that distort the competitive process and harm consumers, innovation, and new business formation. The Anticompetitive Exclusionary Conduct Prevention Act prohibits anticompetitive exclusionary conduct that risks harm to the competitive process. It also makes reforms to improve antitrust enforcement across the board. The bill was cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
In August, Klobuchar introduced the Monopolization Deterrence Act to crack down on monopolies that violate antitrust law. The legislation would give the DOJ and FTC the authority to seek civil penalties for monopolization offenses under the antitrust laws, a power they currently do not have. In June, she led efforts to obtain details about possible FTC antitrust investigations into Amazon and Facebook and possible Justice Department antitrust investigations into Google and Apple. In letters to enforcers, the senators requested information regarding the existence and scope of the potential investigations.
Klobuchar has also been an outspoken voice in opposing anticompetitive mergers and has introduced legislation to help prevent them. In June, Klobuchar and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced new bipartisan legislation to ensure that antitrust authorities have the resources they need to protect consumers. The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act would update merger filing fees for the first time since 2001, lower the burden on small and medium-sized businesses, ensure larger deals bring in more income, and raise enough revenue so that taxpayer dollars aren’t required to fund necessary increases to agency enforcement budgets.
Klobuchar leads the Consolidation Prevention and Competition Promotion Act to restore the original purpose of the Clayton Antitrust Act to promote competition and protect American consumers. The bill would strengthen the current legal standard to help stop harmful consolidation that may materially lessen competition. It would clarify that a merger could violate the statute if it gives a company “monopsony” power to unfairly lower the prices it pays or wages it offers because of lack of competition among buyers or employers. The bill further strengthens the law to guard against harmful “mega-mergers” and deals that substantially increase market concentration, shifting the burden to the merging companies to prove that their consolidation does not harm competition. She also introduced the Merger Enforcement Improvement Act which would update existing law to reflect the current economy and provide agencies with better information post-merger to ensure that merger enforcement is meeting its goals. This bill would modernize antitrust enforcement by improving the agencies’ ability to assess the impact of merger settlements, requiring studies of new issues, adjusting merger filing fees to reflect the 21st century economy, and providing adequate funding for antitrust agencies to meet their obligations to protect American consumers. Klobuchar introduced both bills in February.
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