{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-calls-on-congress-and-antitrust-enforcers-to-take-on-corporate-power-at-open-markets-conference", "Warren Calls on Congress and Antitrust Enforcers to Take on Corporate Power at Open Markets Conference", "2026-06-24", "2026", "2026-06", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", "warren", "https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Warren Calls on Congress and Antitrust Enforcers to Take on Corporate Power at Open Markets Conference\n\nWarren calls out both Democrats and Republicans for nominating judges that don\u2019t follow antitrust laws\n\nWarren pushes antitrust tools to tackle new challenges, including AI\n\nVideo of Remarks (YouTube)\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 At the Open Markets Institute\u2019s 2026 conference on \u201cThe New American Revolution,\u201d U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spoke on the growing momentum for antitrust enforcement, ten years after her first speech at OMI.\n\n\u201c10 years ago, I warned that competition in America was dying. Today, meaningful competition barely registers a heartbeat,\u201d said Senator Warren.\n\nBut Senator Warren pointed out that in the last few years, Jonathan Kanter at the Department of Justice and Lina Khan at the Federal Trade Commission brought \u201chope and a counter-attack against monopolies.\u201d\n\n\u201cThose two were making the billionaire class and Wall Street deal makers nervous. It\u2019s no wonder giant corporations donated handily to Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign. And as soon as Trump took office, corporations came knocking at the White House door to get their pro-monopoly deals approved,\u201d said Senator Warren.\n\nShe highlighted how companies like Paramount-Skydance donated millions of dollars to Trump\u2019s ballroom and his presidential library in what appear to be pay-to-play schemes in exchange for favorable treatment like merger approvals.\n\nSenator Warren also argued that in addition to rising prices, corporate consolidation adds a dark layer of control to our economy.\n\n\u201cWith a handful of CEOs in charge, a handful of people dictate what you watch on TV, which doctor you\u2019re allowed to see, what you eat, what predators get online access to your kids, what apartment you can rent, and, as AI sweeps in, maybe what your future job looks like,\u201d Senator Warren continued.\n\n\u201cIt looks like we\u2019re careening towards oligarchy. But I\u2019m smiling because the antitrust cat is out of the bag\u2026Khan and Kantor reminded America about the power of antitrust laws and demonstrated how to use those tools. Today, people in and out of government are picking up those tools\u2014and the giants can\u2019t stop them,\u201d said Senator Warren.\n\nShe underscored how Congress, state attorneys general, and state legislators are taking on powerful defense contractors, health care giants, and corporations like Live Nation-Ticketmaster and Nexstar and Tegna.\n\n\u201cThe world is changing, and I don\u2019t care how many lobbyists the would-be monopolists hire and how many campaign contributions they make, they cannot stuff this genie back in the bottle,\u201d she continued.\n\nSenator Warren called for Congress to pass laws that sharpen antitrust enforcers\u2019 tools and confirm judges who actually understand antitrust law.\n\n\u201cWe need strong people at DOJ, but if judges ignore the law, then Americans aren\u2019t going to see the benefit of the antitrust laws\u2026We should build a diverse federal bench that will uphold the letter of the law and not be wow\u2019d by a small army of $2,000/hour lawyers whose main job is to make sure that nothing upsets the plans of the world\u2019s biggest corporations,\u201d she said.\n\nSenator Warren called out both Republicans and Democrats for appointing judges that have let through bad antitrust deals.\n\nAdditionally, Senator Warren called for antitrust enforcers to be ready to use the tool of antitrust enforcement while approaching new challenges, including around artificial intelligence.\n\n\u201cCorporations don\u2019t get a free pass from antitrust just because they\u2019re using an algorithm,\u201d said Senator Warren. \u201cWe need to remind Big Tech that vertical integration can be a violation of antitrust law when it is used to lock out competition.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhen I look around the country, I see more appetite than ever to take on corporate monopolies that rip off consumers,\u201d Senator Warren continued, mentioning candidates like Jon Ossoff, Julianna Stratton, Peggy Flanagan, Chris Pappas, Graham Platner, Mary Peltola, and Roy Cooper, who\u2019ve all come out in favor of stronger antitrust enforcement.\n\n\u201cYes, it\u2019s tough out there. Dominant corporations are in a merger frenzy, and the Trump administration is corrupt. The giants won\u2019t give up power easily. But the fight is on, and we\u2019re not giving up,\u201d concluded Senator Warren.\n\nTranscript: Senator Warren\u2019s Speech at the 2026 Open Markets InstituteJune 24, 2026\n\nAs Prepared for Delivery\n\nSenator Elizabeth Warren: The first time I spoke at the Open Markets Institute was 10 years ago. 10 years ago, I warned that competition in America was dying. Today, meaningful competition barely registers a heartbeat.\n\nFive defense companies dominate military contracting.\n\nFour beef packers control up to 85% of beef sales.\n\nThree chains sell half of all the prescription drugs in the United States.\n\nAnd two companies control almost half of all U.S. e-commerce.\n\nAcross our economy, a handful of giant companies dominate entire industries.\n\nSo let\u2019s talk winners and losers.\n\nThe winners are enjoying their day in the sun. Corporate profits are at an all-time high. CEOs are richer than ever. In 1965, CEOs were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker. Today, that number has spiked to 281.\n\nAnd before a Fortune 500 CEO grabs the mic to talk about how super-duper the stock market has been to build wealth, note that it\u2019s the richest 10% of American households that own almost 90% of that stock market wealth.\n\nIt\u2019s pretty clear who is dancing on the corpse of American competition\u2014the richest Americans who just keep getting richer.\n\nSo what\u2019s happened to the losers\u2014the other 90% of Americans?\n\nAs competition dies, you pay more. They pay when a corporate giant hikes the cost of health insurance; when they purchase airline tickets from one of only four major airlines, then pay extra to bring a bag; when they buy groceries from Kroger or Fred Meyer or Ralphs or Food for Less, or Mariano\u2019s or Smith\u2019s or Harris Teeter. Oh, that sounds like a lot of competition, except that every one of them is owned by Kroger.\n\nWhen choices are limited to a few giant companies, customers are forced to shell out whatever they charge, so the giants keep right on raising prices.\n\nThat\u2019s just Econ 101.\n\nBut there\u2019s another, darker layer to what happens when giants dominate an industry.\n\nWith a handful of CEOs in charge, a handful of people dictate what you watch on TV, which doctor you\u2019re allowed to see, what you eat, what predators get online access to your kids, what apartment you can rent, and, as AI sweeps in, maybe what your future job looks like.\n\nToday, a majority of Americans now think that \u201cwhen it comes to politics and society, nothing really matters because powerful people will always do whatever they want.\u201d No wonder much of America believes that Jeffrey Epstein and JPMorgan Chase get to play by one set of rules while everyone else faces hard accountability if they break the law.\n\nThis shift didn\u2019t happen overnight. It\u2019s the result of decades of both parties\u2019 failure to enforce our country\u2019s antitrust laws, of politicians and presidents of both parties favoring corporations over workers, and of both parties confirming judges who skew legal interpretation to benefit corporate giants.\n\nThis shift is also what happens when America\u2019s toothless campaign finance laws allow corporations and billionaires to funnel endless money into elections and lobbying so that giants can buy government favors.\n\nSo yeah, the past ten years have been tough. But the past few years have also brought hope and a counter-attack against monopolies. When Biden was elected, we fought for\u2014and got\u2014the most pro-competition DOJ and FTC in decades. I\u2019m talking about antitrust enforcers Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter.\n\nThey launched some big cases and, at first, they lost. But they didn\u2019t give up. Instead, they leaned in harder, and began notching real wins. In 2024, DOJ won its first anti-monopolization case in decades, and, for the first time EVER, successfully blocked a merger based on negative effects on workers.\n\nWith Khan at the helm, the FTC blocked a merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which would have raised grocery prices for millions of Americans. And if you still don\u2019t see the connection between antitrust and rising costs, just take it from the CEO of Albertsons: she described how the company is now planning to keep prices low to attract more shoppers and compete with rivals. Darn it.\n\nAnd if Khan and Kanter had kept going, we would have seen even more wins.\n\nThose two were making the billionaire class and Wall Street deal makers nervous.\n\nIt\u2019s no wonder giant corporations donated handily to Trump\u2019s 2024 campaign.\n\nAnd as soon as Trump took office, corporations came knocking at the White House door to get their pro-monopoly deals approved.\n\nHave you wondered why companies keep donating millions of dollars to Trump\u2019s gold-encrusted ballroom, his arch, or his library?\n\nIt looks a lot like a pay-to-play scheme.\n\nTake the Paramount-Skydance deal. Skydance desperately wanted to take over Paramount, and it was up to the Trump administration to stop it.\n\nSo what did the executives do? Step one: Paramount\u2019s CBS \u201csettled\u201d a really stupid lawsuit with Trump, handing him over $16 million.\n\nStep two: When Stephen Colbert called that a \u201cbig fat bribe,\u201d CBS cancelled his show.\n\nStep three: the Trump administration approved the merger.\n\nThe result? Trump\u2019s buddy David Ellison, the owner of Skydance, now also owns Paramount, which means he owns Paramount Pictures, CBS, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, MTV, and a massive movie and television library with everything from Top Gun to Spongebob Squarepants. And Ellison has more plans. He wants to buy up Warner Brothers too, taking over CNN, HBO, the Food Network, another film studio, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS and more. One guy in charge of it all.\n\nEveryone from TV watchers to production assistants to make-up artists to A-list celebrities called to block this merger.\n\nDonald Trump\u2019s DOJ ignored them all and rubber-stamped it. A few days later, David Ellison showed up to celebrate at Trump\u2019s UFC birthday party.\n\nBut make no mistake: this isn\u2019t over. The state AGs have the power to block this merger\u2014and that\u2019s exactly what they should do.\n\nThat doesn\u2019t mean we let our guard down, because these guys aren\u2019t giving us a break.\n\nNow, Fox is trying to buy Roku to create another media behemoth, combining the two largest free, ad-supported streaming services into one. And remember: Fox is owned by the Murdochs, another Trump-friendly family.\n\nWe\u2019re seeing the consolidation of media by a few oligarchs happen right before our eyes \u2013 and that\u2019s just in one industry.\n\nLet\u2019s do one more: The Trump administration rubber-stamped a merger between the two largest residential real estate brokerages in the United States, Anywhere Real Estate and Compass. Even though it means one company now controls 70% of real estate listings in some areas, and it could drive high housing prices even higher.\n\nHow did this happen? Well, two clues. One, Compass hired a Trump-friendly lobbyist. And two, Todd Blanche, Trump\u2019s former personal lawyer and wannabe Attorney General, reportedly ran an end-run around experts at the DOJ.\n\nI\u2019m not the only one who noticed it looks like corruption is greasing the skids for mega-deals: giant companies are spending more money on lobbying than ever before. These companies understand that the antitrust laws as written could stop their consolidation in its tracks, and they seem quite willing to spend millions to persuade enforcers to ignore the law.\n\nOK, that sounds grim. It looks like we\u2019re careening towards oligarchy. But I\u2019m smiling because the antitrust cat is out of the bag. What Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter did \u2013 which Wall Street Journal-types said couldn\u2019t be done \u2013 has changed things in a way Trump and corporate CEOs can\u2019t undo. Khan and Kantor reminded America about the power of antitrust laws and demonstrated how to use those tools. Today, people in and out of government are picking up those tools\u2014and the giants can\u2019t stop them.\n\nThat is why 10 years after my first speech here, even as corporate giants do everything they can to eliminate competition, and even as the Trump administration seems willing to sell get-out-of-jail-free cards to the highest bidders, I have hope.\n\nMore people in Congress are starting to see the impact of consolidation. Republican Senator Tim Sheehy and I are advancing right to repair for the military\u2014and we have it in both the House and Senate defense bills right now. Republican Senator Josh Hawley and I teamed up on a bill to break up big medicine to drive down health care prices\u2014not law yet, but we\u2019re getting more interest.\n\nState attorneys general are making change.\n\nThey\u2019re pushing to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster. They sued to halt the $6 billion merger between Nexstar and Tegna. And they may be getting ready to challenge Paramount\u2019s takeover of Warner Bros.\n\nState legislators are writing new laws to tackle consolidation.\n\nWorking people and small businesses are beginning to band together to sue the companies that are hurting competition, and spreading the word about Robinson-Patman.\n\nThe world is changing, and I don\u2019t care how many lobbyists the would-be monopolists hire and how many campaign contributions they make, they cannot stuff this genie back in the bottle.\n\nCould we do more? Sure. Should we do more? Absolutely. For example, Congress should sharpen the antitrust enforcers\u2019 tools.\n\nMandate structural separation to prevent conflicts of interest in vertically integrated companies.\n\nClose merger review loopholes that speed up consolidation of the housing market.\n\nBan private-equity \u201croll up\u201d strategies.\n\nIntroduce reforms to crack down on antitrust corruption, like public notices of HSR deadlines, beefed-up Tunney Act settlement review, and a streamlined process to unwind giant illegal mergers.\n\nAnd confirm judges who actually understand antitrust law.\n\nLet me pause on that point about judges. We need strong people at DOJ, but if judges ignore the law, then Americans aren\u2019t going to see the benefit of the antitrust laws.\n\nAnd I\u2019m not just talking about Republican-appointed judges. A Clinton judge allowed T-Mobile to merge with Sprint, shrinking the cell phone market from four major competitors to three. An Obama judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging Facebook illegally acquired competitors, reducing protections and services for consumers. And a Biden judge cleared the way for Microsoft to take over Activision \u2013 which, by the way, led to Microsoft firing almost 2,000 Activision workers. Over and over again, judges have succumbed to the siren song of pro-corporate Chicago school economics and ignored the actual antitrust laws passed by Congress.\n\nWe should build a diverse federal bench that will uphold the letter of the law and not be wow\u2019d by a small army of $2,000/hour lawyers whose main job is to make sure that nothing upsets the plans of the world\u2019s biggest corporations. It's time to change the temperature of the water. We need to stack the bench with consumer protection lawyers, tenants rights lawyers, and labor lawyers.\n\nWe also need to be ready to use the tool of antitrust enforcement even more decisively to meet new challenges.\n\nConsider artificial intelligence: Corporations don\u2019t get a free pass from antitrust just because they\u2019re using an algorithm. If a company is using AI to illegally inflate rent prices in the middle of a national housing affordability crisis, we need to push back. We need to remind Big Tech that vertical integration can be a violation of antitrust law when it is used to lock out competition.\n\nAnd yes, Big Tech will try to wave off antitrust enforcement by arguing that beating China in AI is important for our national security. But we know competition is essential for innovation, and antitrust is essential to promote that competition.\n\nWhen I look around the country, I see more appetite than ever to take on corporate monopolies that rip off consumers.\n\nJon Ossoff has called for cracking down on giant corporations that are buying up single-family housing.\n\nSo have Julianna Stratton in Illinois and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota.\n\nBut it doesn\u2019t stop there.\n\nChris Pappas in New Hampshire is running on an agenda to \u201cstop corporate greed,\u201d and Graham Platner calls out corporations that have consolidated power, not by competing better, but by cheating.\n\nMary Peltola in Alaska aggressively supported the FTC in its suit against the Kroger-Albertson merger and took credit when the merger was blocked.\n\nAnd in North Carolina, Roy Cooper\u2019s highlighting his record of fighting unfair business practices that let shady corporations make millions by ripping you off.\n\nThat\u2019s half a dozen candidates for the Senate alone.\n\nYes, it\u2019s tough out there. Dominant corporations are in a merger frenzy, and the Trump administration is corrupt. The giants won\u2019t give up power easily. But the fight is on, and we\u2019re not giving up. With all of us in this fight, I like our odds. And I\u2019m honored to be in this fight with all you. Thank you.\n\n###", 1, "2026-06-25T06:30:03Z", "2026-06-25T06:31:21Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-calls-on-congress-and-antitrust-enforcers-to-take-on-corporate-power-at-open-markets-conference"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1804380230605602, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}