Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter and Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan participate in a panel discussion on the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Spring Meeting on the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C., March 31, 2023.
WASHINGTON — Two of the nation’s top corporate regulators on Thursday defended recent guidelines on merger enforcement which have attracted pushback from the business community.
“Which mergers undergo and which of them don’t could be hugely consequential for people’s lives,” Lina Khan, Federal Trade Commission chair said at an event hosted by the nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project.
“For those who’re a employee, it could possibly mean that your recent employer has more power over you and so that they can use that power to freeze your wages or make your schedule less predictable,” said Khan. “For those who’re a business, it could possibly mean that the supplier that used to give you a competitive rate is now capable of jack up prices.”
Khan was joined on the event by Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
“I believe plenty of the hysteria is probably overblown, that we’re not blocking every merger,” Kanter said. “We will not, we only block those that violate the law.”
Kanter added that a “small fraction” of mergers on a yearly basis require investigation. “We’ve got 1000’s of filings a 12 months. There is definitely not 1000’s of challenges,” he said.
The draft guidelines were released jointly by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division in July.
They include 13 points the agencies will use to guage vertical and horizontal mergers, including whether the merger significantly increases concentration in highly concentrated markets, eliminates competition between firms, or increases the chance of coordination.
A planned merger between grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons, as an example, is pending FTC approval while the agency investigates possible strains on supply for smaller grocery chains.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a company watchdog in Congress, said the rules “provide a much-needed update to counter the actual harms posed by corporate monopolies” after the rules were announced last month.
But Neil Bradley, executive vp and chief policy officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business organization, said the DOJ and FTC are unfairly specializing in mergers.
“The agencies peddle a false narrative on concentration in our economy, are quick to dismiss the advantages and efficiencies mergers create for consumers, and ignore the positive impact mergers have on innovation,” Bradley said in a statement in July.
Each agencies are accepting public comment on the rules through Sept. 18.
