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08-10-2017 - What’s the Story Behind Antitrust Reform? Unpacking the “Better Deal”

The Democrats’ “Better Deal,” announced last week, makes competition a national priority. It follows an Executive Order issued in the twilight of the Obama administration that responded to warnings that competition is in decline. While such initiatives at the highest levels of government are new, concern that competition may be struggling in the U.S. is not. Competition and consumer advocates have long encouraged antitrust enforcers and courts to take a firmer hand in enforcing the antitrust laws. They have pushed back against decades of lax enforcement that put too much stock in claims that cost savings and vague consumer benefits could justify anticompetitive mergers and behavior that entrenched the market power of large firms.

07-27-2017 - The "Better Deal" Makes Competition Policy a National Priority — AAI Offers An Actionable Agenda Moving Forward

With the announcement of the "Better Deal," the Democrats in Congress made competition policy a national priority. In recent work, the AAI has articulated concrete, actionable steps to effectively promote competition in the U.S. economy. In September of 2016, the AAI issued its National Competition Policy Statement, which provides detailed priorities for an antitrust enforcement agenda moving forward. It proposes a variety of enforcement and policy responses to the problems of growing concentration, increasing inequality, and decreasing rates of start-ups that antitrust scholars, enforcers, and policymakers have identified over the last several years. The AAI also highlights the many tools in the current antitrust “toolkit” for how enforcement can tackle inequality. In a recent op-ed, AAI President Diana Moss outlines what antitrust has done and should do to help workers.

07-26-2017 - American Antitrust Institute, Food & Water Watch, and National Farmers Union Say Monsanto-Bayer Merger Puts Competition, Farmers, and Consumers at Risk

Today the American Antitrust Institute (AAI), Food & Water Watch (FWW), and National Farmers Union (NFU) sent a joint letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on the proposed merger between agricultural input giants Bayer AG and Monsanto Co. The three groups offered their in-depth analysis of how the proposed deal would likely harm competition, farmers, and consumers. The letter notes that the merger would complete a sweeping restructuring of the agricultural biotechnology industry, creating the “Big 3” companies where just two years ago, there were six major rivals.

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