The fight against greatness: Congress looks at action against monopolies

The struggle for greatness is growing. Whether it’s beer, banks or book publishing, lawmakers focus on large industries that they say have become so concentrated that they harm competition, consumers and the economy.

The economic disruption of the pandemic has exposed the struggle of small businesses that can not compete with corporate giants that could exploit the new order. Experts and legislators provide excellent statistics:

The four largest airlines control about 65% of US passenger traffic, five giant health insurers control an estimated 45% of the market, pharmaceutical products are dominated by three large companies, the top four banks control about 44% of the market, the so-called Big Five book publishers control about 80% of the US book market, and Google accounts for about 90% of web searches worldwide.

Beer and a burger? Four businesses are expected to control 80% of U.S. meat packaging; the four best brewers and importers have about 76% of the US beer market.

Congress, federal regulators and states have been scrutinizing Big Tech companies for nearly two years and even suing some for antitrust. Now, with Democrats in the majority in Congress and President Joe Biden apparently willing to act on an anti-monopoly agenda, the focus is widening toward the rest of the American business world.

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Critics say the business’s concentration is accelerating, limiting consumer choice, raising prices and weakening service.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Has tabled extensive legislation to overhaul the antitrust legislation. This will make it more difficult for dominant companies to get regulators to approve mergers and expand government authority over competition in other ways. Klobuchar, who heads the Senate Judiciary Competition Subcommittee on Competition, has launched a broad inquiry by the panel of monopolistic cases.

“There is nothing less than the future of our economy and the way of life that supports it,” Klobuchar said during the panel’s first hearing last week. “It’s about saving capitalism and building an economy that works for all Americans.”

At the extreme, experts do not expect the antitrust push to force the dissolution of large companies, as demanded by many Big Tech critics. But legislative success can make it harder for companies to make new acquisitions and shift the burden on them to prove that a given merger will be good for consumers. At the moment, the government is resting on the proof that a merger will be bad.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday singled out an industry, Big Pharma, to get a stricter stance on the weighting of proposed mergers. The new acting FTC chairwoman, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, cites the increasing mergers and the “rising” drug prices, saying: “It is imperative that we reconsider our approach to reviewing pharmaceutical mergers. We intend to take an aggressive approach to engage in anti-competitive pharmaceutical mergers. “

The current move to greatness began with a merger flourishing in the 1980s in the American business world, which boosted profits for the dominant companies. Decisions by both the Democratic and Republican governments over the past 15 years have allowed most major mergers to go through.

Given that anti-monopolistic sentiment has a moment, some observers see possible dual agreement on new legislation, with Klobuchar’s blueprint a likely starting point to be pushed and pulled. Democrats are mindful that the Senate is divided 50-50 with Republicans, and that their margin of one vote depends on a break-even point by Vice President Kamala Harris. This determines the achievement of compromises, as it is likely to require the support of at least ten Republicans to make new antitrust legislation.

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“We have a monopoly problem in the US,” Allen Grunes said. He led merger investigations at the Department of Justice as an antitrust attorney. “It’s not going to be perfect; it’s not going to be easy. But I think there’s a fair chance of a two-way deal.”

“Is this an adjustment or is it a major reform? Something is going to happen,” said Grunes, now a lawyer at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck in Washington.

George Hay, a professor of law and antitrust expert at Cornell University, wonders: ‘God knows what someone is going to tackle. It opens the floodgates. ‘

Republicans express concern about the runaway concentration of corporate power and emphasize their belief in competition to keep the economy alive. But hold fast, some say, let us not punish greatness for his sake; better to look at each case separately. They say that large companies can increase efficiency, lower prices and create jobs.

Industry executives can be expected to make similar arguments when weighing Klobuchar’s legislation at upcoming hearings and following a lobbying blitz. So far, Corporate America has not spoken out publicly about the new antitrust initiative.

Republican lawmakers condemn a new school for antitrust thinking, gaining money among Democrats, that goes beyond the impact of big business dominance on consumer prices than its broader impact on industries, employees and communities.

Biden has named a lawyer who is a supporter of this school, who has been called a ‘hipster antitrust’ by opponents, as a leading presidential adviser on competition. And he is expected to nominate another for a seat on the Federal Trade Commission; the moves suggest a potentially difficult stance for Biden over antitrust. He said as a candidate that breaking up Big Tech companies is something that needs to be considered.

With this approach, Democrats are trying to use antitrust legislation not to promote competition, but to advance social or environmental goals, Republicans argue.

“What we need now is not a comprehensive transformation of the antitrust laws,” Senator Mike Lee of Utah, the senior Republican of the judiciary, said during the trial. “On the contrary, this moment demands … (federal) agency leaders with the resources and the will to forcefully enforce the laws we have.”

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As a moderate Democrat, Klobuchar wants to try on Republican President Teddy Roosevelt’s “Trustbuster” cloak. Her book, due out next month, is entitled “Take Monopoly Power from the Gilded Era to the Digital Age.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Predicts: ‘A Runaway Bestseller.’