New York State Senate Passes Groundbreaking Antirust Reforms to Protect Workers and Small Businesses
Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement after the New York State Senate voted to pass the 21st Century Antitrust Act, S6748, last night.
“The 21st Century Antitrust Act is a groundbreaking piece of legislation that would put workers and local businesses back at the heart of New York antitrust law, where they belong,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “This desperately-needed bill would rein in many of the abusive tactics employed by dominant corporations that are left untouched by current federal and state antitrust law, allowing those corporations to monopolize both product and labor markets. We applaud Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris for his consistent championing of this important legislation.”
As Pat Garofalo has explained in his newsletter, Boondoggle, the 21st Century Antitrust Act would be the most significant rewrite of antitrust statutes at any government level in a generation. The bill would implement a new standard, known as “abuse of dominance,” that would allow antitrust enforcers to challenge a host of corporate practices that today’s antitrust law and precedent allow to go on unabated. It would also enshrine as illegal in state law the practice of monopolizing labor markets in order to drive down wages and working standards.
A longer writeup of how this bill would protect workers and small business from dominant corporations can be found here.
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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.