The Department of Justice's decision to block AT&T's takeover of
its competitor T-Mobile came as no surprise to antitrust experts, as
our CEO said in a Huffington Post column, it was a "no brainer."
But still, the lawsuit was reassuring to those who have spent enough
time in Washington to know that sometimes the good of the many can be
trumped by the louder , politically well connected voice of one company
or special interest.
CCIA commended the DOJ in a Washington Times op ed this week for standing in the face
of political pressure and blocking this merger. In the end DOJ sorted
through conflicting information and determined this merger would cost
jobs in the short run and innovation in the long run. Again, not really
news. When has a merger ever really resulted in job increases?
But the attempts to make politics trump the law keep coming...
The news today that
14 Democrats have sent a letter to President Obama
to pressure DOJ to not enforce our antitrust laws and just give
AT&T approval to turn the wireless sector into a duopoly is a
little puzzling.
It seems like if you want an independent agency to compromise on law
enforcement, it would compiling influence problems on top of legal
issues to have the executive branch make the questionable request.
News reports explain fairly well that DOJ was willing to consider other
proposals from AT&T -- and would only block proposals that violate
antitrust law like this one.
It just seems odd that in an era of too
big to fail companies, some members of Congress would intervene to ask
that we ignore the rules designed to protect consumers, industry and
our economy -- so that one company (with a history of abusing its
market power) could get bigger.
