On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee lawmakers held a hearing with some of the most prominent antitrust agents today. Two leaders of the Federal Trade Commission and two state attorney generals currently suing Facebook for violating antitrust law testified before the committee.
But while lawmakers have talked a lot about breaking up companies like Facebook and Google, law enforcement agencies are the ones with real power to undo technology mergers, even though their increasingly smaller budgets and petty resources make it more difficult to do so. On Thursday, members of Congress signaled that they want to help them file more lawsuits against Big Tech.
WHAT IT MEANS
At previous hearings, the committee chairman, Dep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and others have made comprehensive statements about establishing new rules for technology companies in order to stimulate more competition in the market. But on Thursday, it became clear that helping executors do their jobs could be Congress’ first focal point when it comes to reform.
At the top of Thursday’s hearing, Cicilline asked witnesses how Congress could help modernize merger enforcement and encourage agencies like the DOJ and the FTC to take more cases.
“Today’s hearing is an opportunity to take additional steps … identifying reforms to develop and clarify antitrust laws to address America’s monopoly problem,” said Cicilline in his opening address on Thursday.
It is something that Republicans also look forward to facing. Ranking member Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) said on Thursday that he supports “increased rigorous enforcement” of the antitrust law and “reform of the burden of proof for Big Tech mergers involving a monopoly platform” – basically making it easier for law enforcement to bring lawsuits against technology company violators.
But FTC acting chairwoman Rebecca Slaughter told lawmakers that her work should not stop there. “I firmly believe that effective enforcement is a complement, not an alternative, to careful regulation,” she said.
THE HIGHLIGHT
During Thursday’s hearing, I spoke with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) about Congressional priorities regarding antitrust reform. I asked Klobuchar if Congress should prioritize helping law enforcement officials and providing them with more resources with respect to antitrust reform.
“This is something you can do while advocating for changes to the law,” said Klobuchar. “I was so close to doing this at the end of the year.”
Klobuchar praised his antitrust package with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), called the “Antitrust and Competition Law Enforcement Reform Act”. This bill would give the police more resources to take competition cases to court, reflecting much of what the House Judiciary Committee argued on Thursday.
Klobuchar will also deliver a virtual talk on antitrust reform on Friday with EU Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager. I asked Klobuchar what lessons the US could learn from the EU’s competitive efforts in the technological space.
“They dealt with it in a way that they are seriously considering competition policy,” said Klobuchar. “They are calling it competition policy and have been aggressive about it, going to these door companies. I think that is all that can be learned. Let’s face it, US policy has been drowsy. For years, it was kind of turning a blind eye to what’s going on with things like [Facebook’s] WhatsApp and Instagram purchases. “
WHAT IS THE NEXT?
With all House hearings coming to an end, this means that we will be able to start seeing legislation introduced in the near future. Earlier this month, Klobuchar told Brian Fung of CNN that she plans to hold a series of competition hearings in the Senate also to examine the dominance of technology, such as application store and Facebook fees and Google’s dominance in the advertising market. These hearings have not yet been scheduled.