An ever-shrinking group of woke mega-corporations control the products Americans can buy, the information Americans receive, the speech Americans can engage in, the books Americans can read, and the jobs Americans can obtain.

These monopoly powers control our speech, our economy, our country — and their control has only grown because Washington has aided and abetted their quest for more power. While Big Tech, Big Banks, Big Telecom, and Big Pharma gobbled up more companies and more market share, they gobbled up our freedom and competition.

This happened because globalists hijacked our anti-trust policy and laws. Mega-corporations allied with Washington to prioritize cheap goods in China ahead of the American people. And Washington handed the keys to Big Tech behemoths to take over our digital economy and public square.

We need a trust-busting agenda for the 21st century that puts power back into the hands of the American people. We have to make it easier for enforcers to break up megafirms, crack down on mergers and acquisitions by monopoly companies, strengthen antitrust enforcement to pursue the breakup of dominant, anticompetitive firms.

  

Solutions for the 21st Century

The Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act

Senator Hawley's bill will crack down on mergers and acquisitions by mega-corporations and strengthen antitrust enforcement to pursue the breakup of dominant, anticompetitive firms.

Ban all mergers and acquisitions by companies with market capitalization exceeding $100 billion

Drastically increase antitrust penalties by requiring companies that lose federal antitrust suits to forfeit all their profits resulting from monopolistic conduct

Clarify that “vertical” mergers are not exempt from antitrust scrutiny

Empower the FTC to designate “dominant digital firms” exercising dominant market power in particular internet markets, which will be prohibited from buying out potential competitors

Prohibit dominant digital firms from privileging their own search results over those of competitors without explicit disclosure

Reform the Sherman and Clayton Acts to make clear that direct evidence of anticompetitive conduct is sufficient to support an antitrust claim, which will allow enforcers to effectively pursue the breakup of dominant firms and prevent antitrust cases from devolving into battles between economists 

Replace the outdated numerically-focused standard for evaluating antitrust cases, which allows giant conglomerates to escape scrutiny by focusing on short-term considerations, with a standard emphasizing the protection of competition in the U.S.

The Bust Up Big Tech Act

Senator Hawley’s bill would break up Big Tech companies seeking to dominate multiple industries simultaneously, by banning companies like Amazon from marketing their own retail goods alongside those of other sellers or providing online hosting or cloud services to an ever-growing swath of the internet—including competitors.

Ban major companies in the business of offering search engines, marketplaces, and exchanges from competing with third-party vendors by selling, advertising, or promoting their own competing goods and services on their sites

Ban major companies in the business of offering search engines, marketplaces, and exchanges from expanding their power and creating anticompetitive conflicts of interest by providing the online hosting and internet infrastructure services for third parties
Empower the Federal Trade Commission to hire sufficient staff to monitor compliance
Ensure the antitrust laws are actually enforced, by authorizing state attorneys general and private citizens to bring civil actions to ensure compliance

"If you allow corporations to amass significant economic power through market concentration, they are going to have political power, and they're going to use it."

Senator Josh Hawley







Proposal

Overhauling the Federal Trade Commission

For years, Big Tech has gone unchecked due to inaction, weak enforcement, and a lack of accountability at the Federal Trade Commission. U.S. Senator Josh Hawley is proposing to overhaul the agency by restructuring it to meet the needs of today’s digital markets.