The April 14 Law360 article “Group Says Antitrust Enforcement Down Under Trump” covers the release of AAI’s report on The State of Antitrust Enforcement and Competition Policy in the U.S. From the article:
The report found that although antitrust enforcement has been overly lax for more than four decades, it has declined even further since Trump took office.
“This falloff in enforcement under the Trump agencies is stacked on top of already significant, documented concerns about declining competition,” AAI President Diana Moss told Law360 on Tuesday. “It’s really a double whammy.”
The report, “The State of Antitrust Enforcement and Competition Policy in the U.S.,” found evidence of weaker enforcement across all three key areas of antitrust — mergers, restrictive agreements and monopoly conduct.
Moss said any solution to a dearth in competition will have to involve a combination of public policy tools, including adjustments to antitrust enforcement but also regulation and policies surrounding intellectual property and labor law.
“This is bigger than antitrust,” Moss said. “Until we get a comprehensive mindset around this problem and come up with public policy solutions for it … I don’t think we will solve this problem.”
