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A career Justice Dept official says AG William Barr directed improper antitrust reviews of marijuana industry mergers because of his personal animus toward cannabis https://www.axios.com/whistleblower-barr-directed-faulty-antitrust-reviews-of-marijuana-mergers-e06c14ab-4122-47ce-acb9-6bac6f24d666.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=twitter
A reminder that antitrust enforcement under the Trump administration has been wildly inconsistent: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-11/trump-contradicts-with-big-tech-t-mobile-antitrust-actions?sref=jO7iaJLA via @bopinion
Examples:
-crackdown on Big Tech's dealmaking
-repeal net neutrality
-sue to block merger of AT&T and Time Warner, two non-competitors
-give glowing endorsement of T-Mobile-Sprint merger, direct competitors in highly concentrated market
block pot M&A bc Barr doesn't like pot?
-crackdown on Big Tech's dealmaking
-repeal net neutrality
-sue to block merger of AT&T and Time Warner, two non-competitors
-give glowing endorsement of T-Mobile-Sprint merger, direct competitors in highly concentrated market
block pot M&A bc Barr doesn't like pot?
"Second requests are rare and generally reserved for the biggest takeovers...They typically make up 1% to 2% of mergers that are filed each year. But pot mergers made up 29% of second requests [last year], according to Elias’s written testimony" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-25/pot-m-a-s-mystery-antitrust-reviews-are-linked-to-barr-crackdown?sref=jO7iaJLA @bpolitics
