AAI Says Premise of the SMARTER Act is Unfounded in Advance of House Floor Debate on H.R. 2745

Today, the AAI issued a letter to the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law, Hank Johnson. The SMARTER Act proposes “[t]o amend the Clayton Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act to provide that the Federal Trade Commission shall exercise authority with respect to mergers only under the Clayton Act and only in the same procedural manner as the Attorney General exercises such authority.” The AAI reviewed workload statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to examine whether the premise of the SMARTER Act is sound. The review indicates that the concerns of the bill’s sponsors are without foundation and that the SMARTER Act would not serve the interests of competition or consumers. The letter summarizes AAI’s analysis and findings.