US: Delrahim praises blocking of Siemens-Alstom merger

According to a report from MarketWatch, days after Delrahim is said to be “open” to hearing arguments from T-Mobile and Sprint, the antitrust chief made a case for potentially blocking the merger.

In February, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager blocked a merger between German conglomerate Siemens and France’s Alstom which would have created the world’s second largest rail company.

Makan Delrahim, who heads the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, applauded Vestager’s decision to block the merger from occurring. Speaking alongside Vestager on a panel of international antitrust enforcers in Washington, DC, Delrahim commended her for withstanding political pressure to focus purely on competition issues in regard to the railway merger.

“It’s really important, and it sends a strong signal I think to the broader competition community, that that’s what we do and that’s what we really should do,” he said. “Obviously there’s national security and other considerations that factor in, but with respect to that [the Siemens-Alstom merger], creating a national champion even if you would harm consumers is not the way to do it.”

Delrahim’s remarks were made three days after a report from Fox Business revealed that he is “open” to listening to arguments made by T-Mobile and Sprint in regards to their pursuit to merge.