House Passes Antitrust Bill That Hikes M&A Fees, As Larger Efforts Targeting Tech Have Stalled

• The House of Representatives has approved an antitrust package that would give federal law enforcement more resources to counter anti-competitive behavior, even as broader efforts against Big Tech stall.
• The bill would raise funds to enforce antitrust laws by increasing filing fees for companies proposing major mergers.
• The bipartisan and direct measures continue to be hotly debated, pointing to the hurdles that broader technology-focused legislation must overcome.

The House of Representatives approved an antitrust package Thursday that would give federal law enforcement more resources to tackle anti-competitive behavior, including as a broader effort to tackle Big Tech's bottlenecks. It passed by 242 votes against 184.

The passage of a bill to modernize merger filing fees marks an important step in a divided Congress. A version of the bill has already passed through the Senate, and the House package was passed by the White House in a statement this week.

The bill would increase taxes companies pay to federal agencies when major mergers require government review, raise funds for the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department's antitrust division. For small transactions that require verification, fees will be reduced.

Antitrust authorities have complained of a serious lack of resources for years, even as the number of transactions skyrocketed and many lawmakers increasingly hope they bring in more cases to enforce antitrust laws. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that the measure would save the federal government $1.4 billion over the next five years.

The package that was passed by the DPR also contains two bills that were previously separate. The first, the Foreign Merger Subsidy Disclosure Act, would require merging companies to disclose subsidies from foreign adversaries, such as Chinese and Russian companies, to federal agencies.

Second, the Antitrust Enforcement Administration Act would give state attorneys general more control over which courts hear their antitrust cases. This law, the version passed by the Senate, would solve a problem the attorneys general faced in their antitrust lawsuit against Google in Texas, which the company could move to New York. Attorney generals across the country generally support the measure, so companies can't file complaints in what they see as more favorable jurisdictions.

Supported subdivisions

Despite the largely simplistic and bipartisan nature of the law, it still stirred controversy among Republicans just before the vote. Rep. Jim Jordan, D-Ohio, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, questioned why Congress should allow an agency like the Federal Trade Commission to make more money if it is believed to be run by "radical builders". President Lina Khan. .

Rep. Ken Buck, DC, a senior member of the House Antitrust Subcommittee that supports antitrust reform, brushed off Jordan's criticism. After tweeting on the House Judiciary Committee's Republican page that "Democrats want more money for the FTC and DOJ Biden to fight the Conservatives," Buck tweeted that he confirmed for the last time that he and several other Republicans who supported the move were not Democrats.

Meanwhile, a handful of California Democrats also criticized the state's building bill, even though the state attorney general supported it.

The controversy highlights how difficult it is to pass large-scale US online innovation and choice laws. The bill, also called the self-preference or anti-discrimination bill, would prevent big tech platforms like Amazon, Apple and Google from prioritizing their products over other products that rely on their markets. This may mean that Google cannot unfairly display local search results compared to its competitors, such as Yelp. And Amazon can't choose to prioritize its products over its competitors.

The bill appeared to be gaining momentum in early summer, but optimism about passing it slowly faded as it became clear that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DNY, would not hold a vote until the August break.

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who is leading the bill in the Senate, said she was not discouraged. But time is running out, and heated debate over a much more complex bill passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday shows that the obstacles he faces remain formidable.

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SEE: How US antitrust laws work and what they mean for Big Tech

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