What: On March 27, 2025, the Justice Department launched an Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force and is seeking feedback to eliminate anticompetitive state and federal laws and regulations that undermine free market competition and harm consumers, workers, and small businesses.
Why: The Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force is particularly interested in seeking information about laws and regulations that make it more difficult for businesses to compete effectively. For example, regulations can increase compliance costs, preventing small businesses from competing on a level playing field with powerful corporations. Regulations can also discourage or even intentionally prohibit small businesses and new products from entering markets and lowering prices for American families.
The Task Force is particularly interested in anticompetitive laws and regulations in areas that have the greatest impact on American households, including, but not limited to:
- Housing: Laws and regulations in housing markets can contribute to these problems by making it more difficult for companies to build and for ordinary Americans to rent or buy.
- Transportation: Laws and regulations in areas like airlines, rail, and ocean shipping can grant antitrust immunities, outright monopolies, or safe harbors for conduct that undermines competition. As a result, Americans pay more for travel, fuel, and a variety of other products.
- Food and Agriculture: Eliminating unnecessary anticompetitive regulations will help farmers, growers, and ranchers increase the amount of food they produce and unlock lower prices for American consumers.
- Healthcare: Laws and regulations in healthcare markets too often discourage doctors and hospitals from providing low-cost, high-quality healthcare and instead encourage overbilling and consolidation. These kinds of unnecessary anticompetitive regulations put affordable healthcare out of reach for millions of American families.
- Energy: Laws and regulations can undermine reliability and affordability by protecting incumbent electricity providers from competition or disruptive innovation.
Action: The public will have 60 days to submit comments at www.regulations.gov (Docket No. ATR-2025-0001), no later than May 26, 2025.
SUPPORTING INFO:
Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force
DOCKET FOR COMMENTS:
Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force created by the Antitrust Division
CONTACT:
Janis Reyes
EMAIL:
janis.reyes@sba.gov
TOPIC(S):
DOJ
Is your small business or entity being impacted by a proposed rule? If yes, write a comment letter to the proposing agency.