{"id":211,"date":"2025-05-05T10:43:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/?p=211"},"modified":"2025-05-05T10:43:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:43:28","slug":"newest-ftc-commissioner-mark-meador-signals-continuation-of-aggressive-antitrust-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/2025\/05\/05\/newest-ftc-commissioner-mark-meador-signals-continuation-of-aggressive-antitrust-enforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Newest FTC Commissioner Mark Meador Signals Continuation of Aggressive Antitrust Enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On May 1, newly-confirmed FTC Commissioner Mark Meador stated in a speech, and in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/antitrust-policy-for-the-conservative-meador.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/antitrust-policy-for-the-conservative-meador.pdf\">33-page paper<\/a> released the same day, that federal antitrust enforcers should be more concerned about underenforcement than overenforcement of the antitrust laws.\u00a0 In the speech, to the Conservative Partnership Institute in Washington, DC, Meador made the case that conservatives should reject a \u201claissez-faire or libertarian approach to antitrust law,\u201d and instead \u201cembrace vigorous enforcement of the antitrust laws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meador stated that the Clayton Act demands that the government err on the side of caution when assessing the legality of mergers, and that \u201c[a] greater level of certainty should be required to excuse a merger that eliminates competition than to condemn it.\u201d&nbsp; Going further, Meador offered his view that, whether applied to political power or economic power, \u201cbig is bad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meador was sworn in on April 16 as the third Republican commissioner.\u00a0 While the other two Republican commissioners, Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, have also signaled that the Commission will continue aggressive enforcement in certain sectors (such as technology), Meador\u2019s speech is perhaps the most explicit sign yet that there will be very little if any slowdown in enforcement by the Trump Administration\u2019s FTC.\u00a0 But, as we have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/alerts\/signs_point_ftc_continuing_labor_market_focus_using_different_tools_0325.html\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/alerts\/signs_point_ftc_continuing_labor_market_focus_using_different_tools_0325.html\">previously noted<\/a>, the theories and means underlying this FTC\u2019s enforcement priorities may still differ, even if the ends are closer than many anticipated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On May 1, newly-confirmed FTC Commissioner Mark Meador stated in a speech, and in a 33-page paper released the same day, that federal antitrust enforcers should be more concerned about underenforcement than overenforcement of the antitrust laws.\u00a0 In the speech, to the Conservative Partnership Institute in Washington, DC, Meador made the case that conservatives should &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/2025\/05\/05\/newest-ftc-commissioner-mark-meador-signals-continuation-of-aggressive-antitrust-enforcement\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Newest FTC Commissioner Mark Meador Signals Continuation of Aggressive Antitrust Enforcement&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[37],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"authors":[{"term_id":37,"user_id":341,"is_guest":0,"slug":"chcasey","display_name":"Christopher H. Casey","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/68\/2024\/02\/caseychris-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}