Biden signs new executive order to crack down on monopolistic behavior, technology giants become White House targets |

Original title: Biden signs a new executive order to crack down on monopolistic behavior, and technology giants have become White House targets

The executive order includes 72 measures to crack down on the power of monopoly giants in various industries.

In the future, if Americans lose their luggage or delay delivery while flying on an airplane, or find that the quality of the on-board WiFi service is poor, the airline may need to refund a portion of the fare to the passengers.

This is one of the contents of a new executive order signed by US President Biden at the White House last Friday (July 9). The executive order includes 72 measures, requiring more than a dozen U.S. federal agencies to provide opinions and take actions in order to combat the power of monopoly giants in various industries and increase the vitality of competition in the industry.

“Without healthy competition, big companies can change whatever they want, charge whatever they want, and treat you whatever they want. For many Americans, this means accepting a bad deal. Buy things you can’t live without. Therefore, we know that there is a problem, a big problem. But we also have a golden opportunity.” Biden said in his speech.

Cracking down on monopolies is nothing new in American history. Zhou Shijian, a senior researcher at the Center for China-US Relations Research at Tsinghua University, and formerly working in the Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, told China Business News: “When I first went to the United States, there was a communications and telecommunications company called AT&T in the United States. The company’s business involves telephone, communications and telegrams across the United States, forming a monopoly. Since 1975, the U.S. Department of Commerce has filed a lawsuit against the company for alleged monopoly in the International Trade Court in New York. This lawsuit lasted for ten years, and the final verdict was concluded. It was AT&T that lost the lawsuit, and the company was forced to divide into seven and disintegrated into seven companies.”

“One month later, the Americans chatted with me and said, did you feel it? The telecommunications service has improved than before. The counsellor who manages the logistics also told me later that the telephone bill has dropped significantly in the past few months.” Zhou Shijian Speak out.

　　Broadly crack down on monopolies in various industries

Senior White House officials said the executive order is designed to ensure that small businesses and consumers can trade in a fair market. The White House stated in a statement that since the 1970s, the formation rate of new companies has fallen by nearly 50% as large companies have made it more difficult for innovative small American companies to enter the market. According to a research report by the White House citing the antitrust organization “American Economic Freedom Project,” wages have fallen due to lack of competition, and American families with median incomes are estimated to suffer a loss of US$5,000 each year.

“We can no longer tolerate the proliferation of monopolies.” Biden said at the White House signing ceremony. “There can be no more malicious mergers and acquisitions that lead to large-scale layoffs, price increases, and reduced worker and consumer choices.”

Robert Ashworth, co-head of global mergers and acquisitions at Fuerde Law Firm, recently said in an interview with a reporter from China Business News that since 2020, antitrust agencies have been gearing up globally, whether in the United States or the European Union. Pay attention to all kinds of monopolistic behaviors, especially large-scale mergers and acquisitions that may cause monopolistic behaviors, so as to protect the interests of consumers.

According to local media reports, the administrative order covers initiatives in industries such as agriculture, aviation, health, broadband, banking, and technology. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will formulate rules to protect farmers and farmers from unfair treatment by large meat packers and other agricultural companies, combat unfair and deceptive practices, and encourage food supply channels outside of supermarkets and increase The transparency of consumers’ knowledge of the meat production area.

In the transportation industry, the U.S. Department of Transportation will increase the transparency of airlines’ luggage and WiFi service fees and help consumers recover these fees when travel is delayed or services are not up to standard. The order also requires the Ministry of Justice to cooperate with regulatory agencies to crack down on the monopoly of foreign-owned shipping alliances and railway routes. Railroad stocks plummeted due to this news. Kansas City Southern Railroad, which is in merger talks with Canadian National Railways, fell as much as 8.7%, the worst intraday plunge since April 2020.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: “For most people, three shipping companies dominate the market, which raises and increases costs for suppliers, small businesses, and people across the country. It sounds wrong. This is not true. It sounds wrong or unfair because it shouldn’t be like this.”

In terms of labor rights, the executive order urged the Federal Trade Commission to formulate rules to reduce the restrictions on competition agreements. “About half of the private companies require at least some employees to sign a non-competition agreement, affecting more than 30 million people, including construction workers, hotel workers and many blue-collar workers, not just senior managers.” Psaki’s recent news Said at the press conference.

On the medical front, the executive order instructs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to cooperate with states to allow states to import prescription drugs from Canada in order to reduce drug costs. It also requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue a plan within 45 days to combat high-priced prescription drugs and price fraud.

　　Tech giants become White House targets again

Big technology companies have once again become targets of the White House. Biden’s executive order calls on the Federal Trade Commission to set stricter rules on mergers and acquisitions, making it more difficult for large technology companies to swallow up their smaller competitors, and also more difficult to use their customers’ data. Biden also hopes to inspect major Internet service providers to force them to inform users of the total price to be paid when signing the plan, and to avoid charging high early cancellation fees.

In addition, the executive order calls on the Federal Trade Commission to formulate rules that prohibit technology manufacturers from suing independent repair shops or preventing consumers from trying to repair their own equipment. This is not only aimed at curbing the power of farm equipment manufacturers, but will also have an impact on the maintenance of Apple’s iPhone and other equipment.

Fuerde’s recent report shows that the antitrust issues of technology companies have returned to the focus of the world‘s major economies, and the business prospects of technology giants in 2021 are full of challenges. In recent years, many technology transactions have not been subject to antitrust declarations. In the United States, sometimes even if declarations have been filed, antitrust agencies do not intend to conduct content reviews.

However, until 2020, large technology companies have shown rapid growth.The report pointed out that the new US government is expected to increase its law enforcement after taking office. “It can be expected that Washington and Brussels will start to work together to increase the credibility of their respective law enforcement work and take advantage of each other’s procedural advantages. MakeAtlantic oceanBoth sides of the strait can establish the strongest anti-monopoly law enforcement cooperation.”

An Weibin told the CBN reporters that after the new US administration of Biden takes office, it will increase its enforcement in this area. One of the areas that can most feel the increased supervision is “hunt-and-kill acquisitions”, that is, the acquisition of emerging technology venture capital companies by large technology companies.

　　U.S. Chamber of Commerce voices opposition

According to US media reports, Biden’s policy predecessor was an executive order issued by former President Obama in 2016, which encouraged agencies to consider the fairness of competition in their decision-making and rule-making. However, few institutions followed the instructions of the White House at that time, and the few actions were basically overthrown during the Trump administration.

However, Zhou Shijian said in an interview with a reporter from China Business News that this policy stance is not equivalent to the difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in the United States. “After a company is monopolized, it will generate monopoly benefits. The price set for the market product becomes the final say for large companies, and other small companies are not qualified to speak. The mechanism of market competition is fair competition.” Zhou Shijian said that Trump represents Big capitalists and super rich people cannot generalize their behavior to Republican tendencies.

Biden’s new executive order is more specific than the Obama era. It provides detailed suggestions and directions for what measures to take, rather than leaving it to various agencies to implement them.

Local media said that the new executive order is the product of months of negotiations between White House officials and the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and other federal agencies. Leading this work is Tim Wu, who worked in the Obama administration. He and Lina Khan, a Columbia University professor who was appointed as the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission by Biden last month, agree , The U.S. government should use various tools other than antitrust enforcement, especially the formulation of institutional rules, to promote competition.

But the American Chamber of Commerce is not happy to hear about it. The Chamber of Commerce issued a statement promising that it “will vigorously oppose the government’s price setting, oppose cumbersome and legally problematic rulemaking, oppose the act of treating innovative industries as public utilities, and oppose the politicization of anti-monopoly law enforcement.”

Zhou Shijian analyzed to CBN reporters that what the American Chamber of Commerce criticized was government intervention, and government intervention also violates marketization. “We always say that the market is an invisible hand, and government intervention is a visible hand. There is a problem involved here. The Republican Party advocates a small government and a big society. Now the Democratic Party’s Biden actually advocates a big government and a small society. That is, the government manages everything, and it will increase staff and expenditures. This is theoretically against the development of the market economy.” He said.

According to local media analysis, the executive order does not have the same weight as the law, and the next president can abolish it through a new executive order. In addition, even if the president signs an executive order, it does not mean that the president will be able to achieve his expected goals during his administration. Congress can still step in to revoke these orders, and they may be challenged by existing laws.

Editor in charge: Yang Yalong