Hi,

Corporate growth in 2023 is downright scary.

Big Tech companies just keep getting bigger and bigger. Amazon is acquiring health care companies. Giant grocery stores are trying to execute a mega-merger — inevitably leading to even higher prices at the grocery store. Airlines are consolidating to charge higher prices for worse service. Media companies are merging to squeeze out independent journalism. Microsoft is trying to pull off a $68 billion merger while Google tries to skirt antitrust laws.

In response to this corporate consolidation, Biden administration officials at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) are stepping up to propose, and champion, new corporate merger guidelines in order to protect consumers, workers, and small businesses from the abuses of giant corporations.1

Sign the petition: Support the FTC and DOJ’s merger guidelines to protect consumers from corporate greed and profit-hungry CEOs.

New guidelines are desperately needed to reflect the current reality of multi-billion dollar corporate mega-mergers. FTC Chair Lina Khan said, “Open, competitive, resilient markets have been a bedrock of America’s economic success and dynamism throughout our nation’s history.” She added that these new merger guidelines were drafted with the help of healthcare workers, farmers, patient advocates, musicians, entrepreneurs, and many others.2 Chair Khan and other officials involved in writing these guidelines are listening to the people most affected by the ills of growing corporate power.

“Unchecked consolidation threatens the free and fair markets upon which our economy is based,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “These updated merger guidelines respond to modern market realities and will enable the Justice Department to transparently and effectively protect the American people from the damage that anticompetitive mergers cause.”3

America’s largest corporations consistently engage in monopolistic, anti-competitive practices, price-gouge consumers, trick people into paying huge fees, treat workers unfairly, and take advantage of small businesses. It’s time for new merger guidelines so we can keep some of these dangerous corporate behaviors in check, and stop the next mega-merger.

Add your name to our petition in support of the FTC and DOJ’s new guidelines to enforce antitrust law and stop runaway corporate consolidation.

Thanks for taking action,

Tihi and the team at Demand Progress

Sources:

  1. Federal Trade Commission, “FTC and DOJ Seek Comment on Draft Merger Guidelines,” July 19, 2023.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Ibid.

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