John 

If you’ve ever bought a plane ticket, eaten a burger, or paid a cell phone bill, you’ve been negatively impacted by corporate mergers.

Mergers are one of the most common ways big companies grow. The problem is that in recent years, more industries — airlines, meat processors, and cell phone companies among them — have become extremely concentrated. Less competition in already concentrated industries leads to higher prices for consumers, lower wages for workers, less consumer choice, and more barriers to entry for small businesses.

That’s why President Biden has made promoting competition and preventing harmful mergers a key part of his economic plan. His administration has already gone to court to prevent Microsoft from acquiring video game maker Activision Blizzard and stop publisher Penguin Random House from acquiring Simon & Schuster. 

Now, the Biden Administration has released a draft of its proposed rules for corporate mergers. These much-needed merger guidelines would make it harder for two or more corporations to merge in any way that would harm consumers and workers.

Naturally, corporate executives are going to fight any changes that might prevent them from buying up their competitors. That’s why we need to make sure our voices in support of these new merger guidelines are heard loud and clear.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are collecting public comments about the merger guidelines. Will you take 3 minutes to submit a comment in SUPPORT of the Biden Administration’s new merger guidelines?

After you click on the link, click on the blue button that says “Comment” to leave your comment.

Here are some facts you can use when writing your comment:

➡️ The proposed guidelines will help prevent mergers that harm the U.S. economy by lessening competition or creating monopolies. The guidelines would also lower barriers to entry for small businesses and promote innovation. 

➡️ The merger guidelines haven’t been revised since 2010. The current guidelines don’t consider recent technological advances, such as digital apps. An update is much needed and will make it clear to businesses, policymakers, lawyers, and the public which kinds of mergers and acquisitions are anti-competitive.

➡️ There’s a growing body of evidence that some mergers make basic needs more expensive for consumers. In one study, economists found that mergers between geographically close hospitals had raised the cost of healthcare 6% higher than when distant hospitals merged.

➡️ When companies have less competition and no reason to innovate, they pay workers less.

➡️ Allowing businesses to buy out the competition is harmful to consumers, workers, and the whole economy.

You can read more about the proposed guidelines and comment process at ftc.gov.

The deadline to submit a comment is September 18. The FTC and DOJ will use the public comments to evaluate and update the draft before finalizing the guidelines.

Please take 3 minutes to submit a comment in SUPPORT of the Biden Administration’s new merger guidelines.

Thank you for your commitment to making our economy work for all of us.

-Team Civic Action