Administration's tough talk belies cautious approach on antitrust

Taking over his agency four years ago, Jon Leibowitz was at the head of a group of Obama appointees seeking a tougher line on antitrust violations.

But Thursday's action by the Federal Trade Commission against Google Inc. is the latest example of how enforcement has generally remained cautious and within the mainstream of antitrust law.

The administration has caused some pain for large corporations including AT&T Inc., which abandoned its bid for rival cellphone provider T-Mobile USA after a Justice Department lawsuit. That case and others like it, though, relied on time-honored antitrust principles about avoiding excess concentration in an industry.

"Being aggressive on antitrust enforcement is a lot harder in practice than it looks," said David Wales, a former antitrust regulator now at the law firm Jones Day, in part because regulators must ultimately win their cases in courts that have proved skeptical of expansive interpretations of antitrust law.

The administration has caused some pain for large corporations including AT&T Inc., which abandoned its bid for rival cellphone provider T-Mobile USA after a Justice Department lawsuit. That case and others like it, though, relied on time-honored antitrust principles about avoiding excess concentration in an industry.

"Being aggressive on antitrust enforcement is a lot harder in practice than it looks," said David Wales, a former antitrust regulator now at the law firm Jones Day, in part because regulators must ultimately win their cases in courts that have proved skeptical of expansive interpretations of antitrust law.

(Published by WSJ - January 3, 2013)