United States of America: Introduction of Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act in US Senate

On 12 April 2021, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo) introduced the Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act in the United States (US) Senate which aims to reform antitrust regulation. The Bill would prohibit companies with a market capitalization of more than USD 100 billion from acquiring other companies or merging with other entities from the same supply chain. Furthermore, the Act would give additional powers to the Federal Trade Commission, making the FTC capable of designating companies as “dominant digital firms” and prohibiting such firms from acquiring potential competitors, even if the threshold of market capitalization is not reached. Finally, digital firms would not be allowed to privilege their own search results over those of competitors, unless explicitly disclosed.