Key Takeaways
- The DOJ’s new Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force aims to eliminate certain federal and state laws and regulations that it believes undermine competition. This is the first significant initiative under new Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater.
- The Task Force will initially focus on key sectors, including housing, transportation, food and agriculture, healthcare, and energy.
- The Task Force will take a whole-of-government approach and will include attorneys and economists from across the Antitrust Division as well as individuals from other agencies.
- There will be a 60-day public comment period to assist Division efforts in identifying laws and regulations that decrease competition.
Aims of the New Task Force
On March 27, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the formation of an Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force. The Task Force broadly aims to eliminate anticompetitive state and federal laws and regulations that “undermine free market competition and harm consumers, workers, and businesses.” The announcement comes on the heels of a February 19, 2025, Executive Order directing federal agencies to identify regulations that “impose undue burdens on small businesses and impede private enterprise and entrepreneurship.” Notably, following the “whole-of-government approach” taken by the previous administration, the Task Force will combine the efforts of attorneys, economists and staff from across the Antitrust Division as well as other “interagency partners.”
The DOJ announcement identifies five key markets that will be the focus of the Task Force – housing, transportation, food and agriculture, healthcare, and energy – and provides examples of the types of “laws and regulations that make it more difficult for businesses to compete effectively.” For example, in the transportation industry, the announcement highlights that “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.”
The announcement invites public comments on the Task Force plans to help identify laws and regulations that are impacted by anticompetitive state or federal laws and regulations. Stakeholders, including any member of the public, will have until May 26, 2025, to submit comments.
Finally, the announcement suggests that its genesis relates to a similar effort from the first Trump administration in 2018, when the DOJ issued a report describing how certain regulations can harm competition. As part of this 2018 effort, the DOJ submitted comments to federal agencies in an effort to remove what it deemed as “unnecessary regulations,” including those relating to energy and “making it easier for individuals and small businesses to navigate the federal government bureaucracy.” The announcement also noted that the Task Force will file amicus briefs and statements of interest in private litigation to support its efforts.
Open Questions and Takeaways
The announcement of the Task Force raises a number of questions.
First, the breadth of the Task Force’s mandate is notable. Virtually all statutes or regulations could be viewed as having an impact on free market competition. For example, while consumer protection has traditionally been the primary focus of antitrust legislation, recent antitrust efforts have been directed at labor issues and such efforts may be seen as diametrically opposed to the traditional goal of consumer protection – that is, primarily lowering prices for consumers.
Further, it is not clear what jurisdiction the federal Task Force will have over state laws and regulations. Typically, conflicts between federal antitrust law and policy and state law are rare, given that state law largely reflects the familiar tenets of federal antitrust law. But new preemption battles may loom to the extent state laws or regulations are deemed to “impose undue burdens on small businesses and impede private enterprise and entrepreneurship,” particularly if laws and regulations can be construed as furthering monopolistic conduct or agreements in restraint of trade.
For example, it will be important to see how the Task Force interacts with the state action immunity doctrine. The state action immunity doctrine shields state and local governments from federal antitrust claims for actions taken pursuant to a clearly articulated and affirmatively expressed state policy. Notably, state and local governments are protected, even if their actions are anticompetitive. How the Task Force will interact with local utility monopolies, for example, will be crucial to watch.
Many questions remain considering the ever-changing legal landscape and it will be important to watch how the Task Force will treat its broad directive to decrease the barriers to competition. Companies should stay up to date to ensure compliance as well as overall preparedness.
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