Response by the Open Markets Institute to the Request by the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice for Information on Merger Enforcement

WASHINGTON— The Open Markets Institute (OMI) filed a response to the request by the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice for information on merger enforcement. 

The key points raised in Open Markets’ comment are: 

• The merger guidelines used by regulators since the early 1980s depart from the core principles that have historically governed America’s political economy and that were essential to preserving American liberty and prosperity. 

• The lax merger guidelines used over the past 40 years have contributed to unprecedented concentrations of economic and political power that threaten both America’s economy and its democratic institutions.

• To remedy these ill effects, regulators should reestablish traditional bright-line merger rules based on market share, similar to those detailed by the Justice Department in its 1968 guidelines.

In response, Barry Lynn, executive director of the Open Markets Institute, issued the following statement:

“For more than 50 years, the merger guidelines have served as the main statement of how the government understands the political purposes of the antimonopoly laws Congress has enacted since the founding,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of the Open Markets Institute. “The 1968 guidelines told people that the government was going to enforce antimonopoly as intended by carefully structuring markets and corporations to achieve certain political, social, and economic outcomes. By contrast, the 1982 guidelines published by the Reagan administration, told people that the government intended to try a radically new approach to the law, by focusing foremost on promoting efficiency, as measured by reductions in price. 

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