Westlaw Journal Publishes Akin Gump Article Analyzing “Better Deal” Antitrust Enforcement Legislation

Westlaw Journal Antitrust has published the article “Senate Democrats introduce ‘Better Deal’ antitrust enforcement legislation,” written by Akin Gump public law and policy partners Ed Pagano and James Tucker Jr., antitrust partners Gorav Jindal and Corey Roush and public policy specialist Maral Arslanian.

Previously published as an Akin Gump client alert, the article examines new antitrust legislation introduced by Senate Democrats that, they argue, would create jobs and raise wages and incomes, reduce the costs of living and help families conquer challenges of the 21st century. Most dramatically, the authors write in the article, the legislation includes an antitrust component that would “replace the well-established standard against mergers that would ‘substantially lessen’ competition with a lower ‘materially likely’ standard, which it now extends to monopsony in addition to monopoly.”

The article notes that the legislation is unlikely to advance in Congress, despite being noteworthy for taking aim “at the expected antitrust enforcement under the Trump administration.” The authors add that it also serves “as an indictment of the antitrust record of the Obama administration—an administration that set records for merger litigation and the length of its investigations—as being too lax, particularly in merger enforcement and in the remedies that were accepted by the enforcement agencies in allowing mergers to go forward.”

To read the full article, please click here.