Biden Announces New Rules To Tackle Big Corporate Consolidation

President Joe Biden’s administration is set to roll out new guidelines Wednesday that determine when the federal government will challenge corporate mergers, a major step that has long been anticipated by antitrust advocates and is likely to set off a battle with big business.

Biden will announce the new guidelines, along with a handful of other new antitrust policies, at the fifth meeting of his White House Competition Council on Wednesday.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s antitrust office are set to release a draft of the new guidelines, which aim to modernize how the agencies review mergers and acquisitions with the aim of reducing market concentration and anti-competitive behavior in key corporate sectors.

The new guidelines, spearheaded by FTC Chair Lina Khan and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, are part of the Biden administration’s economic policy that would dismantle a 40-year reign of laissez-faire free-market economics established under President Ronald Reagan.