Letters from CAMP: Hot Potato
Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project
CAMP is fighting for a more democratic economy
Welcome to Letters from CAMP, a newsletter on anti-monopoly activity in Canada and abroad, brought to you by the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project . In this installment we have:
Let's dive in.
Canadian Potato Giants Caught Up in Cartel Allegations
Frozen fries, hash browns, and tater tots are at the center of a major antitrust controversy brewing in the U.S. but with potential implications for Canadians as well. Two Canadian companies - McCain Foods and Cavendish Farms - along with U.S.-based Lamb Weston and J.R. Simplot, are accused in two U.S. class-action lawsuits of orchestrating price hikes by sharing sensitive pricing data.?
These accusations are no small potatoes. In the U.S. these four companies control over 95% of the U.S. frozen potato market which generates $68 billion annually. The lawsuits describe "matching price increases" since 2021, allegedly enabled by data-sharing platforms and backroom coordination. The consequences of this conduct, if proven true, could have affected Canadian consumers as well. McCain is a true monopolist in the space holding nearly 80% of the frozen potato market in Canada, with Cavendish far behind with approximately 6% of sales.
CAMP executive director Keldon Bester and antitrust expert and UOttawa law professor Jennifer Quaid appeared on Global News this week to discuss what the case might mean for Canadians. The case raises two important questions. First, how many more of these cartels are hidden in our economy? And second, how can we ensure fair outcomes for Canadians if regulators allow companies like McCain to become effectively a cartel of one??
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Appointment Viewing: Trump 2.0 Lead Up Rolls On?
This week, CAMP executive director Keldon Bester took to the pages of the Globe and Mail to make the case for why Trump may not be all roses for big business. While reason for optimism exists, no one knows what Trump will do on the antitrust file, and the events of the last week have only further muddied the waters.
The short-lived saga of now ex-congressman Matt Gaetz’s nomination as Attorney General brought a surreal mix of chaos and cautious hope. On one hand, the embattled former congressman—embroiled in ongoing scandals that have made the American payment app Venmo infamous—was hardly an ideal pick to oversee justice for corporate America.
On the other hand, Gaetz was a relatively rare voice of genuine Republican support not only for FTC Chair Lina Khan but also a broader agenda skeptical of Big Tech and in favour of aggressive antitrust enforcement. The same cannot be said of Trump’s replacement nominee Pam Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General with a lobbying portfolio that includes Amazon and private prisons.
Bondi’s appointment may shift the early tone of Trump’s second term, but it’s not clear that antitrust momentum is going anywhere. Trump’s first term launched the landmark Google search and Facebook monopoly cases, and skepticism of corporate consolidation remains bipartisan. Just this week, Republican Senator Josh Hawley grilled credit card executives, calling to “end the oligopoly” in payments amid the DOJ’s ongoing Visa-Mastercard investigation.
As nominations and confirmations continue to shake out, Trump’s approach to corporate power remains a wildcard. But the antimonopoly movement is broader than a few federal appointments and extends far beyond the U.S. border.
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U.S. DOJ Google Remedies Take Broad View of Competition
The wait is over for the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) proposed remedies to Google’s monopoly in online search. While headlines have focused on proposals to sell off the Chrome browser and end Google’s multibillion-dollar search deals with device makers like Apple, the DOJ’s proposed remedy takes a wide view of not only protecting competition today but the future of competition in markets tomorrow.
The proposal includes important elements with the potential to spur competition in search, forcing Google to open up the index that powers its core search product, as well as providing greater transparency and control over data for the advertisers and publishers whose businesses rely on Google’s products. The DOJ also has its eye on competition in the emerging market for AI, requiring Google to divest any existing interests in potential competitors that could be used to co-opt competitive forces.
With their broad scope, the DOJ’s proposed remedies aim not just to restore competition in search and advertising markets, but also emerging markets to which Google could extend its monopolistic reach. Now whether these remedies stick depends on not just the decision of Judge Amit Mehta, but also the resolve of the DOJ as the U.S. government enters a new era of leadership.
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