Barack Obama was carried to the presidency on the back of a dynamic campaign slogan: “The Change We Need.” Regarding antitrust enforcement, we’re still waiting for a significant event signaling a change in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) legal or economic policies relating to the application of the Sherman and Clayton Acts.
To date, the DOJ’s antitrust policy pronouncements have been inconclusive. In May, the DOJ recanted the prior administration’s report “Competition and Monopoly: Single-Firm Conduct Under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.” In the DOJ’s press release, Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney stated, “The recent developments in the marketplace should make it clear that we can no longer rely upon the marketplace alone to ensure that competition and consumers will be protected.”1
