Advocates Hail Groundbreaking Warren-Jones Anti-Merger Bill
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
U.S. Representative Mondaire Jones
1017 Longworth Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator Warren and Congressman Jones:
We write to you to express our support for the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act of 2022. This legislation would put an end to harmful anticompetitive mergers and be a major step forward in turning around the crisis of concentration in nearly every sector of our economy. We applaud your efforts to address this pressing issue and are excited to support this bold legislation that shifts our nation’s merger policy to focus on helping workers, consumers, small and minority-owned businesses, local or rural communities, communities of color, enhancing privacy, and unleashing innovation.
America has a corporate concentration and monopoly problem. Nearly every sector of every industry is highly concentrated. Monopoly power lowers wages; reduces innovation and entrepreneurship; exacerbates income and regional inequality; undermines the free press and access to information; and perpetuates toxic systems of racial, gender, and class dominance.
For nearly four decades, our antitrust agencies have failed to stop harmful mergers, and at the same time, courts have narrowed the scope of what constitutes an illegal merger under our antitrust laws. Whether the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division have been lax in bring challenges to mergers or judges have been too quick to approve mergers over the objection of agencies, or both, the fact is hundreds and hundreds of harmful mergers have been consummated under this system.
Merger filings are now out of control. Just last year merger filings more than doubled to over 4,000. Yet, the underfunded agencies that review these acquisitions were already strapped before this explosion of merger filings, and a single challenge to a merger can cost millions of dollars. It is past time we rethink merger policy in this country.
The Warren-Jones Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act would solve this problem by making large and harmful prohibited mergers illegal, reforming the current merger review process to give the FTC and DOJ the power to reject mergers without expensive litigation or the approval of a court, increasing the power of the agencies to breakup mergers that never should have been approved in the first place, and providing a boost in funding for the FTC and DOJ to ensure that there are adequate resources to review mergers under this new process.
By banning the most harmful mergers outright, breaking up past mergers, and giving the agencies the power to review and reject other harmful mergers, this legislation would have an enormous impact on monopolies and concentration across the economy. This would result in more competition, better wages and conditions for workers, more consumer choice, an opportunity for small and minority-owned businesses to thrive, and reinvigoration of local and rural communities.
We are proud to support this important legislation and look forward to working with you to stop harmful mergers and put workers and people back at the center of our economy.
Sincerely,
Public Citizen
Action Center on Race & the Economy
American Economic Liberties Project
American Family Voices
Artist Rights Alliance
Athena Coalition
Better Organizing to Win Legalization
Broward for Progress
Cambridge Local First
Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment
Center for Common Ground
Center for Digital Democracy
Center for Popular Democracy
Color Of Change
Courage California
Dakota Rural Action
Demand Progress
Democratic Coalition
Farm Action Fund
Future of Music Coalition
Greenpeace USA
Groundwork Action
HEAL Food Alliance
Indivisible California Green Team
Indivisible Ulster
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
IronPac
Jobs With Justice
Liberation in Generation
Main Street Alliance
Missouri Workers Center
New York Communities for Change
Northridge Indivisible
Open Markets Institute
Oregonizers
Our Revolution
People’s Parity Project
PowerSwitch Action
Progressive Democrats of America
Strategic Organizing Center
United for Respect
Westchester Independent Business Alliance
Working Families Party
Writers Guild of America West