Judge Slams Phone on American Consumers by Approving Telecom Mega-Merger
June 12, 2018
Judge Slams Phone on American Consumers by Approving Telecom Mega-Merger
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
Note: Today, a federal judge approved AT&T’s $85 billion purchase of Time Warner.
Judge Richard Leon just slammed the phone on American consumers and American democracy. Not only will this merger deny choice and lead to higher prices for American consumers, it will weaken the economy by diminishing innovation in video distribution and content. Equally worrisome, it will spur a new wave of mergers that will give a small number of giant corporations an even greater chokehold over our economy and democracy.
In an age of big businesses getting even bigger, Congress needs to step in and breathe new life into our antitrust and pro-competition laws so that consumers are not at the whim of historic corporate consolidation. An easy first step would be for the U.S. House of Representatives to join the U.S. Senate in voting to restore net neutrality, which would ameliorate at least some of the abuses sure to follow from the AT&T-Time Warner merger.
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