This is of a piece with Biden's EO on "modernizing regulatory review" that asks OMB to review regs in a way that "fully accounts for regulatory benefits that are difficult or impossible to quantify." The Klobuchar bill similarly puts vast discretion in regulators' hands. Thread https://twitter.com/politico/status/1357362087056576517

The word is the Klobuchar bill would prohibit business from practices that "harm competitors" - which either fundamentally misunderstands how competition works, or doesn't care. /2

The whole point of outcompeting is to harm competitors - I want to earn all the sales and prevent my competitors from taking any sales from me. Basic business 101. /3

Worse —like the Biden EO— the only way to actually give legs to this kind of provision is to to remove analytical rigor. Both the EO and the Klobuchar view of antitrust will only work if a regulator adopts a "know it when I see it" standard. Which is no standard, in practice. /4

Moreover, this approach only really works if it forces courts to rubber stamp regulator decisions. In total, this approach converts the antitrust establishment into a giant honeypot for regulatory capture. /5

This isn't thoughtful regulation or good antitrust. This is just bad industrial policy dressed up in legal language. /end