WASHINGTON, DC – Today, The Tech Oversight Project vehemently condemned Republican House Leadership’s effort to permanently hobble antitrust enforcement by defanging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), currently led by Big Tech critic Chairman Andrew Ferguson. By including the One Agency Act in its budget reconciliation package, Speaker Mike Johnson and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan are giving a massive handout to Big Tech, which will undoubtedly raise prices on families and consolidate even more power in the hands of unpopular, unaccountable Big Tech CEOs.
“Mike Johnson and Jim Jordan are acting as Big Tech’s fairy godmothers by granting tech’s wish to end multi-billion-dollar antitrust lawsuits that hold them accountable. The One Agency Act has nothing to do with increasing government efficiency; it’s about doling out a favor to the Big Tech CEOs that donate to their reelection campaigns,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project. “Big Tech knows they can’t pass the bill on the floor, and that’s why they’re using budget reconciliation to jam their agenda through. We urge Members to oppose this measure and protect the FTC’s ability to enforce competition, outlaw price fixing, and ban price gouging.”
Background:
- The One Agency Act undermines the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust enforcement and makes it easier for Big Tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos to break the law.
- The bill purports to transfer all competition authority from the FTC to the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the guise of efficiency. But there is no evidence that the dual enforcement of the antitrust laws has wasted federal resources or weakened antitrust enforcement.
- The One Agency Act would lessen our antitrust enforcement by:
- Eliminating one of our two frontline antitrust agencies;
- Politicize the independence of the FTC’s competition enforcement by transferred to the DOJ, which is not a statutorily independent agency;
- Orphan the FTC’s Section 5 competition powers under statute, ensuring that no agency can enforce the section of the FTC Act that relates to unfair methods of competition, including invitations to collude and non-compete agreements;
- Hobble the FTC’s ability to study and pass rules on Section 5 matters under Section 6 of the FTC Act;
- Stall any progress to resurrect the Robinson-Patman Act and enforce this key law to ensure that companies do price discriminate against competing buyers; and
- Antitrust enforcement, if moved to the DOJ, would no longer benefit from the FTC’s dual knowledge and expertise in consumer protection law.
- The measure also likely violates the Byrd Rule in the Senate because it is a policy measure that will cost the government money and not decrease federal spending.
- By undermining the efficient enforcement of our competition laws, the One Agency Act would embolden large corporations to increase their power at the expense of all Americans and should be opposed.