In 2024, the Biden administration will ramp up its antitrust battles with a slew of lawsuits and investigations, continuing a three-year campaign against some of the biggest firms in the globe.
Both the government’s relationship with Big Business and President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign will be affected by the results, which might last for years. Next year, consumers may have to reevaluate their methods of grocery shopping, concert ticket purchasing, flat hunting, and healthcare access due to litigation stemming from the high-profile investigations.
The ambitious and far-reaching efforts of Biden’s top lieutenants, particularly Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission and Jonathan Kanter at the Department of Justice, in taking on corporate behemoths are laid out in the prospective 2024 calendar.
Ryan Sandrock, an antitrust attorney at Shook, Hardy and Bacon and a former DOJ staff attorney, predicted that the upcoming year would witness a greater number of investigations and lawsuits than any previous year during the current administration. “Since I began practicing law in 2003, the volume of antitrust activity has never been higher.”
The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission both sent spokespeople who would not comment.
There are a lot of unresolved cases, and time is running out since the Democrats could lose the presidency in the next year. Presented here are a few glimpses of what 2024 may bring.
Within the Department of Justice:
Ever since Ticketmaster and Live Nation combined in 2010, the concert promotion behemoth has been the subject of intense criticism. Last summer, the Department of Justice (DOJ) began its current investigation into the company’s hegemonic position in the live music sector. They intend to finish the study in the new year.
The Trump government initiated this inquiry on Apple, the iPhone maker, and a lawsuit has been planned since last year. The question here is whether the platform’s developers and consumers are hurt by the company’s price gouging due to its monopoly on the mobile operating system and app store.
RealPage: Although it is not a well-known brand, huge residential landlords nationwide utilise the programme to determine rent pricing for rental properties. Several comparable class lawsuits have included RealPage as a defendant, and the DC Attorney General’s Office has just charged the corporation of engaging in price fixing conspiracy with landlords and property managers. Separately, next year could see the conclusion of an inquiry by the Justice Department.
Credit card giant Visa has been the subject of a Department of Justice investigation over possible illegal monopolisation of payment processing services for the better part of a decade. Legal action has the potential to alter the payments sector. The company and the agency reached an antitrust settlement in 2010 regarding restrictions on businesses encouraging consumers to use less expensive payment methods.
In recent years, UnitedHealthcare and Amedisys—the biggest health insurer in the United States—have gone on a buying spree, acquiring not one but four non-insurance companies. Following a protracted FTC inquiry, it successfully finalised its acquisition of home health behemoth LHC Group and repelled a DOJ lawsuit that sought to halt its acquisition of IT company Change Healthcare. Crystal Run, a medical provider in New York, was also purchased by it earlier this year. United has made its second big acquisition in the home health industry in less than a year with the acquisition of Amedisys, and the Department of Justice is now looking into the deal.
In the Federal Trade Commission:
Concerns voiced by agency lawyers regarding Amazon’s potential preference for Roomba parts and products over Samsung and other rival brands have prompted the FTC to extend its examination of the company’s $1.4 billion acquisition of iRobot, the creator of roomba vacuum cleaners, by nearly two years. A ruling at the FTC is anticipated early next year, and the agreement is also being held up by the EU.
The federal government must decide by the beginning of next year whether to block the mega-merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which would form the biggest grocery chain in the country. Unions and lawmakers are strongly opposed to the $24.6 billion pact because they are worried it will cause wages to be deflated and consumer prices to rise.
Oil mergers: Chevron’s $53 billion acquisition of Hess Corp. and Exxon Mobil’s $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources were both initiated thorough evaluations by the FTC this month. The oil and gas industry is quickly consolidating and has a surplus of capital, so mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have picked up speed. The reviews have only begun, but next year we should hear some decisions.
Private equity company Roark Capital, which already owns Jimmy John’s and Arbey’s, is investigating its proposed acquisition of sandwich business Subway for almost $10 billion. Next year should see a decision from the review, which is currently in its early phases.
Acquisition of Israeli firm Autotalks by chipmaker Qualcomm is an effort to expand Qualcomm’s products in the assisted and autonomous vehicle markets. A decision is anticipated in the coming months after the acquisition attracted scrutiny at the FTC and in Europe this summer.
