(Bloomberg) -- The US government now has more pending cases targeting alleged monopolies than at any time since the trust-busting era of the early 1900s, shortly after the antitrust laws were first passed.
In the past two years, the Justice Department under President Joe Biden has sued Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc., Live Nation Entertainment Inc.’s Ticketmaster and Visa Inc. for illegally dominating markets. That’s in addition to the monopolization suit against Google over search filed at the end of the first Trump administration.
“Enforcement is alive and well,” said Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter, who is leaving the agency later this week. “We’ve filed extremely strong, extremely sound cases,” he said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s going to be up to the next administration to take them forward, but we’ve tried to do everything possible to set up the next crew for maximum success.”
Last month, the Justice Department recommended that Google be forced to sell off its Chrome web browser, after a judge ruled the tech giant illegally monopolized online search. The agency also is seeking a breakup of the company in a second case over claims Google dominates in the technology used to buy and sell online display advertising. A decision in that case is expected this month.
Lawsuits against Apple, Ticketmaster and Visa, which were filed this year, are in early stages and don’t yet have trial dates.
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Gail Slater to replace Kanter as antitrust chief. Kanter called Slater, who he worked with in private practice, a “great person and dedicated public servant.”
In a farewell address Tuesday, Kanter urged Congress to reinstate funding it collects from fees for merger reviews that are then used for antitrust enforcement. In March, Congress enacted legislation preventing the Justice Department from accessing unspent fees from previous years.
“This is an existential issue for the antitrust division,” Kanter said. The fees are a key way of funding the department’s enforcement efforts, given that hiring expert witnesses in some high-profile cases can reach as high as $30 million, Kanter said.
After Kanter’s exit this week, his No. 2 — Doha Mekki — will lead the division until Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
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