Competition Policy and Enforcement Is About Growth

When it comes to competition policy, the worst of times appear to be over in London. The best of times could be ahead there – and here at home.

In Washington, the Biden Competition Executive Order attacked business and promoted a ‘government knows best’ to handling the economy. Over the last four years, agencies have implemented their vision by promulgating expensive new regulations and bringing dubious lawsuits. Rather than promoting competition by removing regulatory barriers and reducing the cost of compliance, the Competition EO is a drag on growth.

Its sole contribution to tackling a government barrier was to remove the requirement that hearing aids would no longer need a prescription. Had the Competition EO been chock full of efforts to remove public-sector restraints on trade, it would have appropriately leveraged a whole-of-government approach to promoting competition. Instead, the Competition EO marshaled the forces of government to align against job creators, innovators, and investors – in short, it was about everything but growth.

Until very recently, the UK seemed to follow a similar government-knows-best approach. The UK largely embraced Europe’s aggressive, often regressive approach to competition policy.

But change is in the air. Under Labour leadership, the UK recently fired its lead competition regulator for being anti-growth. Charting a much different course from Biden’s Competition EO, the UK Prime Minster stated,

"We will make sure that every regulator in this country - especially our economic and competition regulators - takes growth as seriously as this room does. "

Executing the Primer Minster’s vision, the UK’s Chancellor, the most senior member of the cabinet responsible for all economic and financial matters, pronounced:

"Every regulator, no matter what sector, has a part to play by tearing down the regulatory barriers that hold back growth.”

She continued:

"I want to see this mission woven into the very fabric of our regulators through a cultural shift from excessively focusing on risk to helping drive growth.^[1]

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A pro-growth mindset is what every White House executive order on competition should trumpet. Instead, the Biden Competition EO called for more government, directing 12 different federal agencies to deliver 72 growth-killing initiatives, save for its sole effort to deregulate hearing aids.

Now that London has changed direction, Washington should do the same – and a good start would be to repeal the former president’s misguided Competition EO.

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​ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2d3e6zklxgo