US: Klobuchar says “We have a major monopoly problem”

Does the United States have a monopoly problem?

We have a major monopoly problem. We’ve seen a 50 percent increase in mergers in the last five years, and we’ve seen now a number of trillion-dollar companies. It doesn’t mean every big company is bad; it just means we’re seeing more and more consolidation of power. The problem is, our antitrust laws haven’t attacked changes in the kinds of businesses we have.

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Let’s start with the courts. You have conservative decision after conservative decision on antitrust. [Supreme Court Justices Brett M.] Kavanaugh and [Neil M.] Gorsuch have a number of opinions that are actually more conservative than where the court has been, in terms of how they interpret the [antitrust] laws.

Which industries pose the biggest antitrust problems, in your view?

First is tech. We haven’t been able to move privacy legislation for years. The second area is pharma, where literally they have three lobbyists for every member of Congress. You’re starting to see common drugs like insulin that have been around for a century, where you’ve seen prices triple or quadruple. The answer here is to pass new legislation that — when it comes to things like pharma — address “pay for delay.”

And then also do something about the antitrust laws. I have two bills: One is to increase the fees on companies that are in megamergers, so that we can better fund the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department. The second piece of it is to do something about the [legal] standard.