Beginning in the 1830s, the Quaker artist Edward Hicks began to paint what would become a long series of paintings (over 60) on the theme of the Peaceable Kingdom. These paintings, based in part on scriptural references to a messianic age after a period of great strife, often feature predator and prey living in harmony. Now, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, are fostering something of a Peaceable Commercial Kingdom and loosening some restrictions on competitor collaborations.

The agencies start from the proposition that addressing the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) “will require unprecedented cooperation between federal, state, and local governments and among private businesses to protect Americans’ health and safety.” Accordingly, they “wish to make clear to the public that there are many ways firms, including competitors, can engage in procompetitive collaboration that does not violate the antitrust laws.”