The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) presented Senator Amy Klobuchar with the 2018 Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement at AAI’s 19th Annual Conference today. Senator Klobuchar is the Ranking Member on the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights.
“AAI is honored to present Senator Klobuchar with the 2018 Antitrust Achievement Award,” said AAI’s President Diana Moss. “The importance of antitrust enforcement has ascended in recent years, stimulating a national debate over its role in promoting competition, economic growth, and the welfare of consumers and workers. Senator Klobuchar’s initiatives support and invigorate antitrust, reaffirming the legacy of this important award.”
Senator Klobuchar’s contributions to the advancement of competition enforcement and policy are widely known to have been enormously positive and influential.
Senator Klobuchar has worked to advance policies that protect consumers from anti-competitive behavior and make sure businesses are able to compete on a level playing field. She introduced legislation to crack down on “pay-for-delay” agreements, the anticompetitive practice of brand-name drug manufacturers paying manufacturers of more affordable generic equivalents to stay off the market. She also co-sponsored a bill to combat the anticompetitive abuse of Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy programs by branded drug manufacturers to delay generic competition. Most recently, Senator Klobuchar introduced The Merger Enforcement Improvement Act. The Act would update existing antitrust laws to reflect the current economy and provide agencies with better information post-merger to ensure that merger enforcement is meeting its goals.
Senator Klobuchar also introduced the most significant consumer product safety legislation in a generation, which banned lead in children’s products and gave the Consumer Product Safety Commission the additional authority, resources, and staff to enforce consumer protection laws. She pushed the cell phone companies to adopt more consumer-friendly policies. And her efforts to protect consumers resulted in the largest furniture recall in American history as well as millions of defective airbags being taken off the road.
In 2015, Senator Klobuchar was appointed Chair of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, where she brings together senators, businesses, community leaders, policy experts and intergovernmental organizations to help develop policies to strengthen the economy.
Pamela Gilbert, Chair of the AAI Board of Directors and long-time consumer advocate, noted, “Senator Klobuchar is a champion for consumer rights and fair competition in the marketplace. This is a well-deserved honor for one of the nation’s most effective and hardest-working leaders.”
The AAI Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement, first presented in 2000, honors outstanding contributions to the field of antitrust. Senator Klobuchar is the 20th recipient of the award and joins the following past honorees: Joel Klein, Robert Pitofsky, F.M. Scherer, Alfred E. Kahn, Lloyd Constantine, Thomas B. Leary, Senators Herb Kohl and Mike DeWine, Maxwell Blecher, John Shenefield, Eleanor M. Fox, Steven Salop, Mario Monti, Roger G. Noll, Kathleen Foote, John M. Connor, Donald I. Baker, Jonathan W. Cuneo, and William Baer.
Senator Klobuchar accepted the award during AAI’s 19th Annual Conference Luncheon in the National Press Club ballroom. The luncheon program included a keynote address from the Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice Makan Delrahim.
