Washington Post: White House Plans to Reverse Bush Antitrust Rules

White House Plans to Reverse Bush Antitrust Rules

By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 11, 2009 11:13 AM

The Obama administration today said it would reverse rules made during the Bush administration that made it difficult to stop anticompetitive business behavior.

Christine Varney, head of antitrust at the Justice Department, said the agency was withdrawing a 2008 report on competition that gave guidelines on how to enforce conduct of dominant industry firms under the Sherman Act.

Varney said the report "raised too many hurdles to government antitrust enforcement and favored extreme caution and development of safe harbors for certain conduct."

The move follows campaign promises by President Obama to step up enforcement on antitrust. During the Bush administration, the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission were criticized for lax enforcement and the approval of controversial mergers including the unions of the nation's only two satellite radio providers XM and Sirius and the merger of Maytag and Whirlpool.

Antitrust experts said the Justice Department is likely to take on a more active role in the enforcement of anticompetitive practices in the Internet industry.

Over the past couple weeks, antitrust regulators have launched reviews of online giant Google. The DOJ is investigating a settlement Google made with book publishers and authors. And the FTC is reviewing the board ties between Google and Apple, which some antitrust experts argue are competitors.

Varney, who served as the lead Internet lobbyist for law firm Hogan and Hartson and was a former commissioner at the FTC, said Justice will take into account the unique business models presented by the Web.

Without commenting specifically about any individual firms or industries, she said: "When you have success you have to pay attention to the rules."