ILSR submitted an in-depth comment letter applauding the FTC and DOJ for the significant changes contained in the agencies’ Draft Merger Guidelines and suggesting ways the agencies should amend their draft guidelines to better discern and block harmful mergers, promote a decentralized economy, safeguard American liberty, and fulfill the aims of the antitrust laws enacted by Congress.… Read More
The Biden Administration’s proposed merger guidelines represent a significant shift in policy from the current guidelines. If implemented, the guidelines would help stop harmful mergers that concentrate power in too few hands. Our new explainer breaks down the basics of the new merger guidelines and explains how they could reshape merger enforcement, the economy, and our democracy.… Read More
A major shift is afoot in the federal government’s stance on big business. The US Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission’s draft merger guidelines represent a major break with the neoliberal assumptions that have underpinned US antitrust enforcement for the last 40 years. In the Project Syndicate, Stacy Mitchell and Ron Know write how the draft guidelines, if adopted, would stop runaway corporate consolidation, rebuild local economies, and help preserve US democracy.… Read More
Small fishermen in the Pacific Northwest are taking a stand against Pacific Seafood, the dominant West Coast crab processor, alleging that the corporation is exploiting its power to manipulate industry regulations in its favor and drive down the prices the fishermen receive for their catch. Writing in Civil Eats, Ron Knox provides our latest dispatch on how local economies are suffering the effects of unchecked monopoly power.… Read More
As the Federal Trade Commission sets its sights on challenging Amazon’s dominance in online retail, Ron Knox argues in The Sling that the agency must leverage its most potent weapon against anticompetitive behavior: Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.… Read More
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, ILSR warned that control over cloud computing, the backbone of the modern economy, is dangerously concentrated. Amazon Web Services (AWS), which controls more than 40 percent of global cloud infrastructure, has exploited its position to lock-in customers, shut out rivals, and reap unfair advantages in its other non-cloud business lines. ILSR urges the FTC to use its authorities to open the market to needed competition.… Read More
Ron Knox writes in Competition Policy International that in order to foster a more democratic economy we must strengthen merger guidelines and enforce anti-merger laws, promote anti-merger enforcement in Congress, and educate federal judges about the intent behind anti-merger laws.… Read More
Lawmakers in Minnesota will have the opportunity this legislative session to put the state at the forefront of a growing national movement to improve and strengthen laws to constrain monopoly abuses against workers, independent businesses, and communities.… Read More
Ron Knox writes in Slate how the shocking collapse of Taylor Swift’s tour ticket presale was an inevitable failure of the monopoly Ticketmaster.… Read More
