Rep. David Cicilline: “America is in a monopoly moment. This monopoly moment is holding back the entire economy."
Rep. Ken Buck: For my fellow GOP members who are concerned about Big Tech “the only way to stop this power is through antitrust reform.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal: “Self-regulation by Big Tech is patently ineffective.” Jayapal says her conflict-of-interest bill offers a “structural solution to a structural problem."
Rep. Victoria Spartz, co-sponsor of the merger filing fee bill, says she does "not agree with all the bills in this package" but believes it is important to debate antitrust reform and how companies have grown so powerful.
Rep. Chip Roy (also a co-sponsor of the merger filing fee bill) also says he doesn't support all the bills but is in favor of some antitrust reforms.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries: “A properly functioning market has always been central to our success and there are abuses that need to be reined in. It’s time to end the era of buy or bury.”
“When I looked at the conduct that is involved with these actors, I am convinced we need to do something beyond letting the market take care of itself,” Rep. Ken Buck says. “I believe these are the right bills and we should forward on these bills.”
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. @JusticeATR just filed to block Aon's $30 billion merger with Willis Towers Watson, a deal between the no. 2 and no. 3 insurance brokers that would create the world's biggest insurance brokerage. More TK.
For the TL;DR set: combining the no. 2 and no. 3 insurance brokerage would lead to higher prices for the 1,000 largest U.S. companies, who use Aon and WTW to help them set up and manage insurance plans for employees and retirees.
This story started it's life as this chart. I wanted to look at how the House bills zoomed in on the companies (ALSO special thanks to @wordsbykam for listening to me ramble on a Friday afternoon and then making it into something understandable)
The Justice Department and the FTC designate “covered online platforms” for enhanced enforcement only if the companies meet certain thresholds: The business’ parent company must have a market value of at least $600 billion -- something only 10 corporations worldwide meet
There's been a lot of antitrust news today. Sen. Mike Lee and Chuck Grassley also dropped their own antitrust overhaul. Here's the one-pager: lee.senate.gov/public/_cache/…
There's stuff in here that's DOA for Dems -- like eliminating the FTC's antitrust jurisdiction and giving it to @JusticeATR. But there are other things that could gain some consensus.
@JusticeATR Civil fines for knowing violations of the antitrust laws of up to 15% of a company's annual revenues for each year in which the violation occurred. That's in line with EU fines, which can be big $ (see Google's $10B or so)
The FTC improperly held that 1-800 Contacts trademark agreements violated the antitrust law, the 2nd Circuit held this AM. They reversed the FTC decision and ordered the complaint be dismissed. Big loss for FTC. More TK.