Time For Congress To Act
July 7, 2009 2:40 PM
The Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee on July 6 urged the Justice Department to investigate possible anti-competitive practices in the wireless industry. It is certainly appropriate for the DoJ to scrutinize the state of competition in industries that have become more concentrated, and to take action if violations of antitrust laws have occurred. Increased concentration and practices in the pharmaceutical, airlines, agriculture and other sectors are also being reviewed by DoJ. We are also seeing more concentration in other sectors of the economy as well. DoJ needs to look at all of them as part of its ongoing mission and take appropriate action if it finds antitrust violations.
In the meantime there are other problems in the competition/antitrust arena that are already fully evolved and defined, and which clearly will require a federal legislative solution. Both the DoJ and the FTC have done a commendable job in recent years in overturning many state real estate regulations and industry practices that force consumers to pay higher real estate sales commissions. These practices have been well documented in scathing reviews by 60 Minutes and hundreds of other electronic and print media. Despite DoJ's and FTC's effective work, some of those anticompetitive practices have become embodied in state laws, and neither DoJ nor FTC currently have the power to overturn them.
In the meantime there are other problems in the competition/antitrust arena that are already fully evolved and defined, and which clearly will require a federal legislative solution. Both the DoJ and the FTC have done a commendable job in recent years in overturning many state real estate regulations and industry practices that force consumers to pay higher real estate sales commissions. These practices have been well documented in scathing reviews by 60 Minutes and hundreds of other electronic and print media. Despite DoJ's and FTC's effective work, some of those anticompetitive practices have become embodied in state laws, and neither DoJ nor FTC currently have the power to overturn them.
By contrast DoJ's current investigation of the state of competition in these other sectors of the economy will take time to complete, and may or may not lead to antitrust cases, and if so those cases will take time to wind through the courts. The investigations will also yield useful information regarding whether existing laws are being appropriately enforced or whether additional legislation is necessary. This raises the question of what should the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee be doing while DoJ's investigations and possible subsequent actions proceed?
Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl should focus the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee's immediate attention to addressing the already identified existing barriers to competition in real estate services in many states. In this area the problem has already been defined, the DoJ and FTC are already carrying out their responsibilities to the current limits of their existing authority. It would be a much higher and better use of the subcommittee's resources to develop legislation that will overturn these anticompetitive state laws.
Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl should focus the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee's immediate attention to addressing the already identified existing barriers to competition in real estate services in many states. In this area the problem has already been defined, the DoJ and FTC are already carrying out their responsibilities to the current limits of their existing authority. It would be a much higher and better use of the subcommittee's resources to develop legislation that will overturn these anticompetitive state laws.
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