Fighting Modern Monopolies: What's at Stake in Antitrust Enforcement

Increased corporate consolidation across industries has harmed Americans, as consumers, as workers, and as owners of small businesses. By protecting fair competition, antitrust enforcement contributes to lower consumer prices, increased jobs and wages, innovation, and better-quality goods and services. In these ways, antitrust enforcement profoundly affects Americans’ everyday lives. Both federal and state enforcers have roles to play in this important work. Recently, we have seen them act independently and together to challenge consolidation and anti-competitive practices in several high-profile cases, including against Google, Amazon, and Kroger-Albertsons. What challenges are federal and state antitrust enforcers facing? How can these challenges be overcome to achieve the promises of our antitrust laws?

Moderator:
Elizabeth Odette, Assistant Attorney General and Manager of the Antitrust Division in the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General

Panelists:
Alvaro Bedoya, Commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

Gwendolyn J. Lindsay Cooley, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust in the Wisconsin Department of Justice and Chair of the Multistate Antitrust Task Force of the National Association of Attorneys General

Doha Mekki, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice