Barry Lynn Testifies at Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Hearing on “The Role of Competition in Enhancing Economic Resiliency”

Open Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn testified on June 5, 2024, before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights at a hearing entitled “Strengthening U.S. Economic Leadership: The Role of Competition in Enhancing Economic Resiliency." 

The hearing opened with remarks from the Subcommittee Chair Senator Amy Klobuchar on the need to address the issue that over 75% of U.S. industries have become more consolidated and concentrated since the 1990s, putting stress on consumers and on our economy. As consumers feel the dire effects of concentrations of economic capacity through price increases and more, the Chair convened this hearing to discuss ways to strengthen the roll of competition to address the problem of industrial concentration.

In his testimony, Lynn presented to members of the Committee and the public the harmful consequences of U.S. policies of deregulation, promoted by both parties, in late 1980s and 1990s. He explained that this allowed corporations to concentrate capacity and control in such a way as to hinder the prosperity and liberty of American citizens and put our economic and national security at risk. Lynn called on policymakers to restore antimonopoly enforcement to ensure resilient supply chains and reduce choke points of production and capacity.

“One of the most important actions Congress can take today is to require the antitrust agencies to acknowledge the role that competition law and enforcement play in engineering how complex systems are physically structured,” Lynn said. He closed by laying out the following policy recommendations from the Open Markets Institute:

• Establishing a hierarchy of threats to strategically guide action and investment

• Continue to use public investment to address the most immediate dangers

• Work with G7 allies and other close industrial partners to full map threats and strengths

• Ensure that the US and all NATO allies agree on how to address China’s chokepoint power (i.e .Dealing with Germany’s reckless transfer of power to China)

• Target concentrations of capacity and control in cloud storage, computer services, and AI

In a Q&A portion of the hearing, Senator Peter Welch asked Lynn to elaborate on the ways in which concentrations of power and control in our food supply chains hinder small farmers and raise costs for consumers. Lynn responded that competition enforcers must ensure independent grocers and farmers have fair access to grocery stores and other consumer retail spaces, and are not shut out by the larger producers and sellers.

Lynn also stressed that Congress must fully fund antitrust and fair competition enforcers, including those at the Department of Justice, in order to realize the goals discussed at this hearing.

Lynn has testified before congressional and other government committees, including the Antitrust Subcommittee, many times. In May, he testified at a USTR hearing on supply chain resilience. In that testimony, Lynn drew from his two decades of reporting on how corporate control over our supply chains has resulted in regional concentration of production and dangerous supply chain choke points. He also presented a series of solutions to de-concentrate and dramatically strengthen our supply chains – read more here. 

In April, Lynn and Open Markets’ industrial policy lead, Audrey Stienon, submitted comments to USTR on ways the agency can use its recently initiated supply chain review to promote more competition. 

In May 2023, Lynn last testified before the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee on “Making Google, Facebook, and Amazon Safe for Democracy by Enforcing Traditional Non-Discrimination Rules.”