Klobuchar Introduces Bill to Strengthen Antitrust Enforcement

March 10, 2020 Media

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would strengthen the ability of antitrust enforcement agencies to go after industry giants.

The Anticompetitive Exclusionary Conduct Prevention (AECP) Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), would amend the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act.

It would shift the burden of proof in the hundred-year-old law so that companies with a market share over 50 percent, or “significant market power,” have to prove that exclusionary conduct does not cause “an appreciable risk of harming competition.”

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Sarah Miller, the executive director of the newly formed American Economic Liberties Project, said in a statement the bill is insufficient in the face of the scale of monopolies in tech.

“The bill is riddled with loopholes, like creating vague standards that corporations’ well-heeled lawyers will exploit. Congress needs to make clear rules, not give vague instructions to judges to determine when a monopolist is acting improperly,” Miller said.

“By relying on vague terms like “risk of harming competition,” open-ended standards for identifying law-breaking like “the totality of the circumstances,” and “baseless or even bad faith,” the Anticompetitive Exclusionary Conduct Prevention Act talks big and accomplishes little.”