US Senator Josh Hawley introduced a proposal earlier this week that would ban companies with a market value of more than 100 billion US Dollars for going forward with acquisitions or conduct mergers.
According to an AppleInsider report, Hawley is seeking to bar mergers and buyouts for America’s top performing or big companies. This includes major tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google. For those unaware, the Senator is a conservative who has been attacking Big Tech after major platforms were accused of “censoring” Republican voices. Thus, Hawley’s legislation has also been dubbed as the “Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act.”
The legislation in question will also supplement existing antitrust laws with higher penalties and a lower threshold for prosecution. An example being, companies facing prosecution under federal law would be for “the protection of competition,” rather than just “consumer harm.” This would imply that the firms that lose antitrust lawsuits would be required to “forfeit all their profits resulting from monopolistic conduct” under the new regulation.
Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission or FTC would also receive a new power to regulate “dominant digital firms.” The Senator stated that “This country and this government shouldn’t be run by a few mega-corporations.” He further added that the Republican Party “has got to become the party of trust-busting once again. You know, that’s a part of our history.” Similar to Big Tech, Hawley is also taking steps against major pharmaceuticals based firms that are dominating the medical market.
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