United States of America: Introduction of bill aiming to amend antitrust rules

On 6 January 2021, the New York Senate Bill S933A ("Twenty-First Century Anti-Trust Act") is introduced to the New York State Senate. It aims to amend antitrust rules, lowering the threshold constituting dominant market power (from 70% to 40%) and expanding the catalogue of anti-competitive behaviour. Abuse of a dominant position is defined more closely, while the otherwise necessary definition of the relevant market is made optional if direct evidence for abuse of dominance can be given to the court. The motivations for the change included antitrust concerns in the digital economy, especially platform providers. The Bill also makes it possible to file a class-action lawsuit pursuant to the state antitrust law. Finally, individuals are sanctioned USD 1 million for anti-competitive multilateral conduct and monopolization, while the sanction for corporations is set at USD 10 million.