Congressman Neguse’s Bipartisan Antitrust Enforcement Legislation Voted Out of Committee
View the Congressman’s remarks during the markup here.
Washington D.C.— Today, Congressman Joe Neguse’s bipartisan Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee. The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act is supported by Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline and Ranking Member Ken Buck, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, Representatives Victoria Spartz and Chip Roy. The bill is one of five bipartisan bills drafted by lawmakers on the Antitrust Subcommittee, which last year completed a 16-month investigation into the state of competition in the digital marketplace and the unregulated power wielded by Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. As part of the Subcommittee’s investigation, Congressman Neguse hosted the Committee in Boulder, Colorado for a field hearing to hear from small businesses about anti competitive behaviors in the digital marketplace.
Congressman Neguse’s bill, Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act would update merger filing fees for the first time since 2001, lower the burden on small and medium-sized businesses, ensure larger deals bring in more income, and raise enough revenue so that taxpayer dollars aren’t required to fund necessary increases to agency enforcement budgets. To ensure this legislation is a permanent solution to the outdated fee structure and not a one-time fix, the filing fees will be linked to increases in the Producer Price Index going forward.
“In America, competition is central to economic growth and innovation, and when companies engage in anti-competitive tactics it harms consumers, entrepreneurs and our ability to compete globally,” said Congressman Joe Neguse. “Last Congress, I was proud to enact two common-sense antitrust measures into law, and I’m glad to see our Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act passed out of the House Judiciary Committee so soon after introduction. As a former regulator and leader of Colorado’s consumer protection agency, I know how critical it is for our enforcement agencies to have the necessary resources to do their job. That is why my bipartisan legislation will update merger filing fees for the first time in over a decade, ensuring that parties to larger mergers pay their fair share and consumers don’t have to foot the bill for these necessary and long-overdue increases to antitrust agency enforcement budgets. Congress has a vital role to play to ensure that markets are working in a way that benefits consumers, small businesses, innovation and our democracy.”
Premerger filing fees have not changed since 2001 despite the steady march of inflation, and the current fee structure places too heavy a burden on smaller deals and too small a fee on larger deals. The fee for a $900 million deal should not be the same as the fee for a $60 billion deal. And despite the massive increase in merger filings in the last five years and public calls for action to protect competition, funding for enforcement authorities has stagnated.
Background:
Through his role on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, Congressman Neguse has played a leading role in advocating for proper antitrust enforcement. As part of the Subcommittee's investigation into anti-competitive behaviors in the digital marketplace, Congressman Neguse brought the Committee to Boulder, Colorado for a field hearing in January 2019. In the 116th Congress, Neguse introduced and enacted two antitrust enforcement measures into law, which would protect antitrust whistleblowers and reauthorize a critical antitrust enforcement program. Following the conclusion of the Subcommittee’s big tech investigation, Congressman Neguse has called for a similar investigation into Big Pharma, in particular an examination of the FTC’s oversight of mergers for the pharmaceutical industry.
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