Senior legal analyst Daniel Hanley explains why the FCC should block Verizon’s attempt to merge with a critical competitor and market participant.

In late July, Democratic senators sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to investigate the acquisition of TracFone, the largest prepaid carrier, by Verizon, the second-largest wireless phone carrier in the U.S. The FCC should use its broad merger review authority to block it outright.

With prepaid service, consumers pay for a set amount of cellular usage upfront rather than receive a bill at the end of the month. While such a service may seem like a relic of the 1990s, more than 74 million Americans rely on the service as a low-cost and accessible alternative to traditional cellular plans provided by Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Verizon is one of the most dominant telecommunications companies in the U.S., occupying 30% of the entire cellular market. Up until now, the company has focused on its traditional postpaid service and almost entirely ignored the prepaid cellular market. Verizon now sees an opportunity to use its financial firepower to acquire an important competitor with its attempted acquisition of TracFone.

A staggering potential windfall for Verizon

The potential windfall for Verizon is staggering. If this deal were to be approved, the FCC would anoint Verizon as the largest wireless prepaid service operator in the United States and the company would obtain an additional 21 million customers. The merger would also allow Verizon to acquire the fourth-largest wireless company by subscribership in the U.S. The acquisition of TracFone by Verizon will also add $8.1 billion in revenue for Verizon and an additional 90,000 retail locations. Such a position will only continue the wave of consolidation in the cellular service sector and fortify Verizon’s market power as one of the largest wireless communications providers in the country.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice review almost all mergers in the United States. However, the communications industry is so important that Congress also gave the FCC the authority to review and deny mergers and acquisitions in the sector. Unlike the legal standard set in the Clayton Act, which structures the merger litigation of the DOJ and the FTC, the FCC reviews mergers in the communications field under a “public interest standard.” The public interest standard is highly deferential to the FCC’s interpretation. As such, the FCC has broad discretion and can consider a range of factors when analyzing a merger under its jurisdiction. The Supreme Court has stated that the standard “no doubt leaves wide discretion and calls for imaginative interpretation” and that the agency has “comprehensive powers to promote and realize the vast potentialities” of communications technologies.

A merger of this magnitude will undoubtedly cause the traditional litany of harms derived from mergers, such as an increase in the barriers to entry for the communications sector and increased potential collusion between firms as a result of increased concentration. However, even a moderate review of the facts would show that Verizon’s acquisition of TracFone is not in the public interest and that the FCC should block the merger.

Read the full article on Broadband and Breakfast here.