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Speaker 1: Amazon's proposed thirteen point seven billion dollar purchase of Whole

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Speaker 1: Foods Markets is clear to move forward after winning rapid

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Speaker 1: antitrust approval. The Federal Trade Commission said it approved the

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Speaker 1: deal within a thirty day review period without an in

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Speaker 1: depth investigation, after determining the tie up wouldn't hurt competition.

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Speaker 1: The deal came together as Democrats are calling for stepped

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Speaker 1: up antitrust enforcement against mergers, and as tech giants like

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Speaker 1: Amazon and Google are drawing greater criticism about their growing

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Speaker 1: dominance of markets. Joining me in our New York studio

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Speaker 1: is Jennifer Ree, Bloomberg News senior litigation analysts, and I

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Speaker 1: have to give credit where credit is due. Jen, when

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Speaker 1: this deal was announced and we discussed it on the show,

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Speaker 1: you said you could not see any antitrust concerns. So

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Speaker 1: you are totally right. So trade groups, consumer watchdog groups,

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Speaker 1: some Democrats raising concerns that has could eliminate jobs, increase

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Speaker 1: Amazon's online dominance, and hurt grocery competitors. Yet the FDC

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Speaker 1: clears the deal so quickly did they can sid er

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Speaker 1: any of that when they get when they get, It's

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Speaker 1: very likely that the FTC did consider that because when

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Speaker 1: they get complaints, you know, they take those complaints seriously.

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Speaker 1: They think about them, and they look at them. But

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Speaker 1: the bottom line is that the kinds of harms that

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Speaker 1: that result in a deal violating the antitrust law are

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Speaker 1: harms that like increased prices and reduced output that might

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Speaker 1: hurt consumers. There's sort of what we call a consumer

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Speaker 1: welfare standard in the antitrust laws right now. And harms

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Speaker 1: like lost wages, lost employment, um, even just the fact

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Speaker 1: that Amazon is getting bigger and further diversifying this way,

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Speaker 1: that is not an antitrust harm and that's not the

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Speaker 1: kind of thing that would violate the law. Well, talking

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Speaker 1: about Amazon growing and diversifying, and this deal not only

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Speaker 1: gives it a foothold in the grocery store market in

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Speaker 1: the US and the grocery market, but more than four

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Speaker 1: sixty brick and mortar stores which it can use and

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Speaker 1: the company antanius to continue to grow. Is there a

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Speaker 1: point at which the antitrust agencies say enough is enough?

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Speaker 1: You know, it depends on a future deal and what

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Speaker 1: that deal is. And I say that because the way

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Speaker 1: the law is designed, it's not assessing a deal in

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Speaker 1: a cumulative manner. It's not saying this company has just

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Speaker 1: become too big, it has its hands in too many

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Speaker 1: different sectors and and you know this bothers us it's

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Speaker 1: just too dominant. Generally, they really look at these deals

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Speaker 1: on a case by case basis, and they're looking at

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Speaker 1: the unique set of facts that applies to that deal.

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Speaker 1: So if Amazon does a deal in the future in

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Speaker 1: a market in which they already have significant market share,

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Speaker 1: and this will add to their share and the markets

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Speaker 1: concentrated that deal specifically could be an issue, could create

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Speaker 1: an issue, but just generally to think about sort of

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Speaker 1: an accumulation and diversification. UM, there is no mechanism to

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Speaker 1: stop a deal for that reason. Have you seen changes

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Speaker 1: since the Trump administration in antitrust enforcement and what's happening

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Speaker 1: at the FTC? You know, I haven't yet, but I

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Speaker 1: think it still remains to be seen. Because the issue

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Speaker 1: is we don't have current anti US leadership in place

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Speaker 1: yet UM, either not appointed yet or not confirmed yet

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Speaker 1: in both the d o J and f TC. So

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Speaker 1: we have lean staffs in both and at the right

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Speaker 1: now with the FTC, we have an acting chairperson rather

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Speaker 1: than you know, an official formal chairperson and and at

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Speaker 1: the FTC. In fact, there should be five commissioners and

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Speaker 1: we have two, so we're waiting on three appointments. And

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Speaker 1: whoever these people are and whatever they do going forward

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Speaker 1: is yet to be seen. Now. Having said that, some

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Speaker 1: of the names we're seeing bandied about our Republicans and

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Speaker 1: sort of traditional Republicans. So if anything, the expectation is

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Speaker 1: that the atmosphere might become more permissive towards big deals.

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Speaker 1: Democrats are calling for stepped up antitrust enforcement against mergers

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Speaker 1: in their new economic agenda, a better deal. What are

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Speaker 1: they advocating for specifically, and what could that mean for

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Speaker 1: the future of merger reviews. You know, there's this new movement,

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Speaker 1: I think an anti trust and the Democrats have latched

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Speaker 1: onto it to to sort of roll back the time clock.

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Speaker 1: And I say that because what they all seem to

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Speaker 1: be seeking, those those people advocating this this sort of

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Speaker 1: broader enforcement against big deals and a broader view of

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Speaker 1: harm um. They're seeking something that we was really going

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Speaker 1: on about eighty years ago. And over the last hundred

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Speaker 1: years economic thinking has developed. There's been all sorts of

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Speaker 1: case law UM. I think analysis has become more sophisticated,

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Speaker 1: and it's developed into a more sophisticated sort of precision tool,

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Speaker 1: as the current acting chairperson of the FTC referred to

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Speaker 1: it recently. UM, and many think that's not adapted well

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Speaker 1: toward our new world with these big Internet platforms, and

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Speaker 1: they're seeking to, i think, broaden it to deal with

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Speaker 1: what they perceived to be harms that could occur that

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Speaker 1: we're not handling. Now. I don't see this as anything

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Speaker 1: that's going to occur quickly or soon. It's true because

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Speaker 1: everyone's saying, look, it's there's so much dominance in this field.

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Speaker 1: There's so much there's so much dominance in the platforms.

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Speaker 1: And yet when you come in to explain to us,

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Speaker 1: that's not what antitrust is all about. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: no on now, I'm not It's not that it's not

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Speaker 1: about you know, checking dominance. It is we do have

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Speaker 1: within our both the DOJ and the FTC have the

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Speaker 1: ability to look at a company that might be a

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Speaker 1: monopoly or have market power, and if they think that

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Speaker 1: they're engaging in illegal conduct, they have the ability to

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Speaker 1: step in. UM. Thank you so much as always, Jennifer

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Speaker 1: Ree for being here. That's Jennifer Rees. She's a senior

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, and if you want to check out

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Speaker 1: more of her analysis, you can go to b I,

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Speaker 1: go on the Bloomberg terminal