Advocates Sense New Moment in Antitrust As Opposition Grows Against AT&T Merger
In The News Piece in BuzzFeed News
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Oct. 26, 2016
Lina Khan was quoted in BuzzFeed News about the growing opposition to industry concentration:
Before AT&T had even announced plans to buy Time Warner for $85 billion, Donald Trump had denounced the deal, becoming an unlikely bedfellow for Democrats who would soon join the attack.
The earliest reactions to AT&T’s proposal ranged from professional skepticism to unflinching death stares. And while some observers view Washington’s response as nothing more than a bluster of soundbites, others see a new moment for antitrust enforcement, bolstered by the economic populism that has defined the 2016 election.
“There’s definitely something new in the air when it comes to antitrust,” Lina Khan, a fellow at New America who researches industry concentration, told BuzzFeed News. “There’s a general awakening that our current antitrust approach has failed at keeping markets open and competitive, and has instead overseen extreme concentrations of economic power.”