Farm Action praises FTC-DOJ merger guidelines
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Maxwell
| Farm Action, a group that fights corporate monopolies in agriculture, today praised a set of merger guidelines that the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department announced Monday. The two agencies said, “The 2023 merger guidelines are the culmination of a nearly two-year process of public engagement and reflect modern market realities, advances in economics and law, and the lived experiences of a diverse array of market participants.” Detailed comments from officials are in a news release from the FTC. |
| “We commend the DOJ and FTC for delivering on their commitment to restore competition to our economy,” said Joe Maxwell, Farm Action’s co-founder and chief strategy officer. “For more than 40 years, the merger guidelines have been void of a review for competition. During this period of time, unprecedented concentration across U.S. markets has driven farmers and small businesses out of business.” “These new merger guidelines will help restore economic freedom and strengthen our democracy,” added Maxwell. He also noted that Farm Action had “weighed in on every step of the process” of rewriting the guidelines. “We set out the legal and factual case for ending the prioritization of the consumer welfare standard, which both violated antitrust laws and ushered in unprecedented corporate concentration,” Maxwell said. |
