Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have released new draft merger guidelines to help stop anti-competitive mergers. In response, Marc Jarsulic, senior fellow and the chief economist at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
These guidelines provide a road map for how the antitrust agencies intend to use their authority to make merger policy more effective. While the guidelines are quite complex and deserve careful study, they are a welcome step forward. The draft guidelines include stronger presumptions about the effects of increased market concentration, new presumptions about the effects of vertical mergers, a recognition that mergers by dominant firms need close scrutiny, a developed approach to mergers by multisided platforms, and new emphasis on preventing harms to wages or employment caused by increased employer power in labor markets. These and other changes distill what the agencies, academics, and practitioners have learned about competition policy in recent years. Workers and consumers will benefit when they are put into practice.
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau at [email protected].