Event Video: State Antitrust Laws and Enforcement by Attorneys General

Under existing law, state attorneys general are permitted to enforce federal antitrust laws in suits brought on behalf of the state's residents. Additionally, states are permitted to enact and enforce their own state antitrust laws.

Recently, we have seen a flurry of antitrust action on both the federal and state level. In October, the Department of Justice and the attorneys general of 11 states filed a complaint in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that Google violated antitrust laws to maintain its dominance in online search and search advertising. Meanwhile, NY continues to lead a large, bipartisan group of state attorneys general in a separate antitrust investigation of Google. Texas is also leading an antitrust investigation targeting Google’s advertising business. California might have its own probe as well.

Our panel of experts discuss antitrust federalism, the complexities of state enforcement actions, and how state antitrust law can differ from federal law (and why that’s potentially a problem). We also delve into the current investigations as well as one of the last major multi-state antitrust actions, Ohio v. American Express.

Featuring:

Paul N. Watkins

Managing Director, Patomak Global Partners

Paul N. Watkins is Managing Director at Patomak Global Partners. His regulatory background includes designing the first state and federal FinTech sandboxes, consumer-protection and antitrust enforcement, securities-litigation defense, and helping to found the first international and domestic regulator networks promoting innovation in financial services. Mr. Watkins joined Patomak from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he founded the Office of Innovation, and was the Bureau Director’s primary advisor on innovation. He designed the Bureau’s policies on no-action letters, trial disclosures, and compliance sandbox tests. Before joining the CFPB, Mr. Watkins led the Civil Litigation Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, where he managed the state’s enforcement of consumer protection, data privacy, antitrust, and civil rights laws. He supervised numerous multistate and individual enforcement actions against companies ranging from Theranos to leading financial institutions, credit reporting agencies, and technology companies. He routinely built multistate Attorney General coalitions in the consumer protection and amicus brief context.

Timothy Sandefur

Vice President for Litigation, The Goldwater Institute

Timothy Sandefur is the Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation and holds the Duncan Chair in Constitutional Government. He litigates important cases for economic liberty, private property rights, and free speech in states across the country. Timothy is the author of several books, including Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man (2018), The Conscience of The Constitution (2014), and The Right to Earn A Living (2010), as well as dozens of scholarly articles on subjects ranging from Indian law to antitrust, slavery and the Civil War, and political issues in Shakespeare, ancient Greek drama, and Star Trek.

Ashley Baker (moderator)

Director of Public Policy, The Committee for Justice

Ashley Baker is the Director of Public Policy at the Committee for Justice. Her focus areas include the Supreme Court, technology policy and regulatory reform, and judicial nominations. Her writing has appeared in Fox News, USA Today, The Boston Globe, RealClearPolitics, Law360, The American Spectator, and elsewhere. Most recently, Ashley has worked to form a new coalition of groups, the Alliance on Antitrust, which was established to address calls to move away from the consumer welfare standard by weaponizing the law, which would leave consumers and conservatives worse off. Ashley is an active member of the Federalist Society, where she serves as an expert on the Regulatory Transparency Project's working groups on Antitrust and Consumer Protection and Cyber and Privacy. As a member of the Republication National Lawyers Association, she has served as a speaker on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary. Ashley also serves as an official observer on the Uniform Law Commission’s drafting committee on the Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Data.

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