US House Panel Votes For Higher Merger Fees & More Enforcement Budget

The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday, June 23, to approve a bill to increase the budgets of antitrust enforcers and increase fees on the biggest mergers as the panel considered six antitrust bills, many aimed at reining in Big Tech.

According to Reuters, Representative Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, in an opening statement called the bills a “historic package of bipartisan legislation” aimed at “reining in anticompetitive abuses of the most dominant firms online.”

After more than three hours of discussion, the committee voted 29-12 to approve a measure to sharply increase the budgets of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission, which enforce antitrust law. It would also increase the filing fees for the biggest mergers.

The panel also voted 34-7 to approve a bill that would ensure that antitrust cases brought by state attorneys general remain in the court they select.

The committee then began discussion of a bill that would require platforms to allow users to transfer their data elsewhere.

There has been a flurry of opposition to the most sweeping reform bills, including from the powerful US Chamber of Commerce, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.

The companies spent nearly the past two years under federal, state, and congressional investigation into how they use their clout to fend off competition, extend their dominance into adjacent markets or abuse their dominance.

Of the remaining bills, two bills address the issue of giant companies, such as Amazon and Google, creating a platform for other businesses and then competing against those same businesses. One would require the competing business to be sold while the other would require platforms to refrain from favoring their own businesses.

Another would require a platform to refrain from any merger unless it could show the acquired company does not compete with it.