Antitrust Division Looking at Agriculture

This week, the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division defended the DOJ’s plans to enforce antitrust laws that affect agribusiness.

Speaking at the Drake Law School in Des Moines, Iowa, Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater asserted that evolving markets require steady monitoring as conditions change.

Gail Slater, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division:  “If our big tech cases against Google have taught us anything, it's that even relatively fast moving internet markets can remain monopolized for decades. Our litigation experience suggests that we cannot assume that markets will always self-correct. That market concentration is never a problem. That entry is always easy. That exclusionary conduct, usually sales, and that buyer power, is never an issue worth investigating.”

Slater also spoke to the importance of enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act, which functions as a safeguard against exploitation of farmers and ranchers by the meat packing industry.

Gail Slater, Gail Slater, Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division: “This is the ranchers American dream, but this can only happen if the current generation can keep their ranch operating and free, fair and competitive markets. For this to become reality, our great farmers, ranchers and small businesses like independent seed dealers need an antitrust cop on the beat.”

For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs