Bloomberg: Biden Seen Reining In Mergers and Cracking Down on Big Tech

November 11, 2020 Media

Since Joe Biden left office almost four years ago, antitrust enforcement has gone from a backwater of Democratic policymaking to a key tool for reshaping the U.S. economy.

That trend is expected to continue — and could even accelerate — under a Joe Biden administration, according to antitrust experts and those who advised his campaign on competition policy.

Biden will take office as progressives have come to see antitrust enforcement as a means for tackling the power of dominant companies and improving economic outcomes for workers. There’s mounting evidence that many industries have grown more concentrated, contributing to such economic woes as income inequality, declining business investment and stagnant wages.

In October, a House antitrust probe led by Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island produced a 449-page report that said dominant tech platforms had abused their power and called for a revamp of antitrust laws. That report could serve as an antitrust platform for the Democratic Party, said Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, which advocates for enforcement against dominant companies.

“This is a very different environment where everybody is saying we have a monopoly problem,” said Stoller. The Biden administration is “going to have to deal with it, and I think they’re open to dealing with it,” he said.