Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Fitzgerald named new leader of House antitrust subcommittee, (Jan 2, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Global Alliance for Responsible Media | Twitter | Twitter, Inc. | World Federation of Advertisers
Bi-partisan cooperation appears unlikely as Judiciary Committee Dems take position that GOP members are weaponizing antitrust in new minority report.
Republican leadership for the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittees has been announced, and one notable change is the appointment of Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R., Wis.) to serve as chairman of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust for the 119th Congress. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) made the announcement on December 30.
Fitzgerald takes the reins from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) Prior to Massie, the top Republican on the antitrust subcommittee was Ken Buck (R., Colo.) who helped push through the subcommittee a number of bi-partisan antitrust measures that ultimately became law in 2022, including the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act and State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act. Buck was known for reaching across the aisle. When he was passed over for the subcommittee chair position for the next congress, Buck established the Congressional Antitrust Caucus in February 2023. The Congressional Antitrust Caucus was intended to hold Big Tech and monopolies accountable, promote healthy competition in the economy, and advocate for hardworking and law-abiding consumers and business owners. Such bipartisan cooperation does not appear as likely in the 119th Congress.
Reacting to the announcement of the leadership position, Fitzgerald pledged to “reverse the Biden Administration’s anti-business agenda” and “fight the federal bureaucracy.” Fitzgerald was among the House Republicans who questioned the FTC’s rulemaking to ban noncompete agreements. In February 2023, Fitzgerald, along with Jordan and Massie, as well as Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Cal.), sent a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, contending that the rule exceeded the agency’s delegated authority. The rule has since been blocked by federal district courts and an appeal is pending. In addition, Fitzgerald took the position that Khan politicized the agency. Going forward as subcommittee chairman, Fitzgerald has said that he would “hold Big Tech accountable for censorship.”
House Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff report. There are already signs that Democrats on the House antitrust subcommittee will likely fight these efforts. On December 31, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) released a Democratic staff report, disputing the existence of collusive conduct to censor conservatives. The report, titled “The Delusion of Collusion: The Republican Effort to Weaponize Antitrust and Undermine Free Speech,” accuses the Republican majority of the House Judiciary Committee of “weaponizing antitrust law."
The Democrats responded to a Republican committee report released in July 2024, outlining censorship of conversative viewpoints by Big Tech and the advertising industry. The report, titled “GARM's Harm: How the World's Biggest Brands Seek to Control Online Speech,” followed a 15-month investigation of alleged collusion within the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and specifically its Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) initiative. According to the report, “through GARM, large corporations, advertising agencies, and industry associations participated in boycotts and other coordinated action to demonetize platforms, podcasts, news outlets, and other content deemed disfavored by GARM and its members.” In other words, GARM censored conservative viewpoints, the report suggested. Among the alleged targets of the effort was Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter.
The Democrats’ report questioned the Republican majority’s antitrust theories against GARM and suggested that the Republican report was a “pretext for a lawsuit Musk filed against various advertising entities … to silence the advertisers who expressed concern about content on his platform.” After Musk’s antitrust lawsuit was filed, the WFA announced that GARM would discontinue its activities.
Companies: World Federation of Advertisers; Global Alliance for Responsible Media; Twitter, Inc.
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