SALT LAKE CITY—Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes is one of a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general urging Congress to modernize federal antitrust laws in order to increase enforcement and provide consistency in antitrust laws, and encourage smaller tech companies who want to expand. 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam today applauded legislative proposals to update federal antitrust laws.
In a letter sent to House and Senate leaders, the attorneys general urged them to continue making improvements to the antitrust laws via a range of bills moving through Congress, including the continued consideration of the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, the American Choice, and Innovation Online Act, the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, the Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (“ACCESS”) Act, the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, and the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act. The attorneys general recommend the addition of provisions that would further protect consumers from unlawful and irresponsible mergers and business practices, and to facilitate competition and innovation.
The letter notes that updated legislation is required to respond to changes in technology, decreased competition in important sectors, and undue judicial skepticism towards robust antitrust enforcement, commending the antitrust bills as steps in the right direction.
Along with these updates to Federal law, the coalition also urges Congress to include in the proposed legislation provisions confirming that the states are sovereigns that stand on equal footing with federal enforcers under federal antitrust law, including with regard to the timing of challenging anticompetitive mergers and other practices.
The letter was led by Attorneys General Phil Weiser of Colorado, Douglas Peterson of Nebraska, Letitia James of New York, and Herbert H. Slatery III of Tennessee. They were joined by California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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