The joint proposal from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) lays out 13 guidelines for how mergers would be reviewed.
The agencies asked for public comment on the draft that will be open for 60 days.
“Unchecked consolidation threatens the free and fair markets upon which our economy is based,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement.
“These updated Merger Guidelines respond to modern market realities and will enable the Justice Department to transparently and effectively protect the American people from the damage that anticompetitive mergers cause.”
FTC Chair Lina Khan, a proponent of antitrust reform and vocal critic of the market power of tech giants, said the draft guidelines update enforcement to “reflect the realities of how firms do business in the modern economy.”
Part of the guidelines includes a focus on “platform” companies, urging an update that would allow agencies to “examine competition between platforms, on a platform, or to displace a platform.”
Such an update focused on platforms could be critical in how the agencies take on massive tech companies.
The FTC has faced recent hurdles in cases to block tech company’s acquisitions, including Microsoft’s deal to merge with Activision Blizzard and Meta’s acquisition of the virtual reality company Within.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
