Panelists Weigh the Issues Arising from Antitrust Legislation/Regulations

Moderator Kurt Oneto, partner, Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Gross & Leoni, LLP, poses questions about the issues raised by misguided antitrust legislative and regulatory efforts to Eric Enson, partner, Crowell & Moring, LLP; Aaron Benjamin, Google’s head of competition policy for the US and Americas; and Lois Richardson, vice president and legal counsel, California Hospital Association. The panelists agreed existing law promotes healthy competition and changes such as those being proposed by the California Law Revision Commission, the Attorney General and others could have devastating consequences for many firms outside the tech industry, as well as nonprofit hospitals in underserved areas. The panelists cited details from their own experience to illustrate the difficulties that are arising. They explained that the federal attitude is that underenforcing anticompetition laws is better to allow aggressive competition and innovation, whereas California is taking the opposite approach. Moving the focus of antitrust policy from what is good for consumers to protecting competitors will result in government picking winners and losers, leaving consumers with fewer choices, panelists said.