Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) proposed legislation on Tuesday to halt mergers by corporations and funds larger than $100 million in revenue or financial firms with market capitalization of more than $100 million, in order to protect the American public from further consolidation and concentration of power and control during a time of crisis.

The legislators’ plan would ban mergers and acquisitions by large corporations until the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)“determines that small businesses, workers, and consumers are no longer under severe financial distress.” 

Rep. David Cicilline (RI-1), chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, on April 23 called for a similar merger moratorium at an conference sponsored by the Open Markets Institute. 

The proposal by Sen. Warren and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez tracks closely with the outlines of a letter that the Open Markets Institute published in March. In that letter, Open Markets urged Congress, the Trump administration, and federal and state law enforcement agencies to “use their various powers to impose an immediate ban on all mergers and acquisitions by any corporation with more than $100 million in annual revenue, and by any financial institution or equity fund with more than $100 million in capitalization.” Open Markets wrote then that a moratorium on mergers was needed to prevent a wholesale concentration of additional power by corporations that already dominate or largely control their markets, especially in ways that may significantly worsen the crisis that now threatens America’s health care, social, and economic systems. 

Without a merger ban, Americans will face even greater concentration and increased economic and political inequality after the pandemic. While most independent businesses are facing hardship, corporations such as Apple have plenty of available cash and are ready to use it immediately for takeovers.

Sen. Warren and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal can be read here.

Open Markets’ proposal can be read here.

The Open Markets Institute last Thursday hosted a conference in conjunction with the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) on how to rebuild the international production system to ensure its resiliency and to promote more effective cooperation among the peoples of the world. The overwhelming consensus of participants was that concentration of power and capacity deeply threatens the ability of all nations to cope with crises such as COVID-19 and poses grave dangers to U.S. and European security.

Participants in the conference included Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer, Financial Times editor Rana Foroohar, International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow, OECD Chief Economist Laurence Boone, former Director-General of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy, former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Paul Tucker, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota Director Michael Osterholm, FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra, and Michael Masters, founder of Masters Capital Management and chair of Better Markets. Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI) gave the keynote speech for the event.

The conversation focused on a variety of dangers, including the extreme concentration of vital medical and pharmaceutical supplies in China, the fragility of complex industrial systems, and the ways in which today’s international supply chains harm millions of workers around the world.

Gabriela Ramos, OECD chief of staff and liaison to the G20, said that it was vital that international leaders address the dangers posed by consolidation of capacity. “There is a tradeoff between resilience and efficiency,” she said.

Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the OECD, concluded the event, telling Open Markets’ Executive Director Barry Lynn that “You give us a vision, and then our mission … becomes clearer. We have a greater sense of purpose. It’s invaluable.”

Martin Wolf wrote in the Financial Times that the conference had asked a “big question … whether the essential systems that keep our societies running are adequately resilient.” Unfortunately, he concludes, the “answer is no.”

The conference was co-hosted by the New Approaches to Economic Challenges initiative (NAEC) at the OECD. The entire conference can be viewed here. 

Open Markets Institute co-hosted a webinar on April 21 with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group on how product manufacturers deprive Americans of the right to repair the products that they have purchased. The conference featured Open Markets policy analyst Daniel Hanley, Food & Power writer Claire Kelloway, and U.S. PIRG’s Campaign Director for the right to repair Nathan Proctor.

The event focused on how dominant manufacturers exploit repair restrictions to create monopoly power in theaftermarkets for product parts, service manuals, and diagnostic software. The conference highlighted the rising number of consumers who say that they should be able to fix what they own. 

The conference was based in large part on a new report by Open Markets, Fixing America: Breaking Manufacturers’ Aftermarket Monopoly and Restoring Consumers’ Right to Repair. The report exposes how a deadly combination of anemic antitrust enforcement and technological development have allowed manufacturers to purposefully adopt exclusionary practices and cut off the tools necessary for repair. Our report makes clear that lawmakers, antitrust enforcers, and regulators have many policy tools that can reopen repair markets, such as bringing antitrust lawsuits for predatory design tactics that restrict the right to repair or for exclusive dealing that restricts where owners can go to repair their products. 

The full report can be read here.

The full webinar can be viewed here. 

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