Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced a “great explainer on the new DOJ merger guidelines” with the kind of frank description that the lawmaker has become known for. Anti-trust cases — the breaking up of too-big-to-fail companies, and/or the denial of certain large scale mergers — by the DOJ and FTC are often too wonky to grab the interest of the general public, which doesn’t often care if, say, a Redmond, Washington software giant buys a popular video game maker.
But people should care — and the DOJ needs to watch our for the people’s interests in these cases — because, as Murphy says, these competition-stifling economic giants hit people’s wallets when unchecked. Or, as Murphy says specifically, it’s “shi**y” for consumers.
Here’s a great explainer on the new DOJ merger guidelines.
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 20, 2023
Concentrated market power is often shitty for consumers and workers and the new guidelines finally put the rest of us first when regulators are considering mergers. https://t.co/5mbu0vHFTs
Murphy amplifies a Prospect article that outlines the new DOJ and FTC Merger Guidelines. Journalist Luke Goldstein writes that the new guidelines are “the first paradigm shift in mergers since the 1982 guidelines set by the Reagan administration that relaxed enforcement against corporate mergers.”
That paradigm shift, as Goldstein puts it, compels companies to “focus on investing in product, innovation, and job quality instead of relying on acquiring competitors.”
The 50-page guidelines document details 11 specific guidelines, including “Mergers Can Violate the Law When They Entrench or Extend a Dominant Position” and “Mergers Can Violate the Law When They Create a Firm That May Limit Access to Products or Services That Its Rivals Use to Compete.” In simple terms, the latter may be explained by a prohibition against Chevrolet buying up all the spark plug companies.
Murphy would say a move like that is, well, crappy?
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