Attorney General Rayfield Secures Approval For 16 New Positions to Fight Corporate Mergers and Monopolies

This afternoon, the Oregon Legislature's Emergency Board met and approved Attorney General Dan Rayfield's request for 16 new positions that will allow the Oregon Department of Justice to investigate and fight corporate mergers and monopolies that are driving up costs for Oregon families and reducing choices for consumers

"Rising costs are harming Oregon families and small businesses, making it harder and harder to afford basic needs," said Attorney General Rayfield. "Grocery bills are skyrocketing, there are fewer choices for things like cable and internet service, and things like tickets to concerts and movies are increasingly out of reach. A big part of the reason is that corporations are being allowed to consolidate unchecked - with no federal oversight. Oregon and other states are now the last line of defense to protect working families and that's what drove the urgency behind today's action."

Over the past several months, more than half of the calls and emails that have come in to the Oregon Attorney General's Office have been from Oregonians who are worried about out-of-control corporate mergers and the impact on their personal finances.

The Emergency Board's approval comes as federal enforcement has weakened significantly under the Trump administration. The Federal Trade Commission has seen key commissioners fired and merger guidelines reversed. In February, the top lawyer overseeing merger and monopoly enforcement at the U.S. Department of Justice was forced out, and the division has since seen a mass exodus of career attorneys.

The new positions - including five assistant attorneys general, four paralegals, six legal secretaries and administrative staff, and one economist - will double the number of attorneys and triple the overall capacity in the ODOJ Antitrust Division, as the state has been taking on more of these cases while the federal government abandons this type of enforcement.

ODOJ has already demonstrated what aggressive state-level enforcement can accomplish. Oregon co-led the successful effort to block the Kroger-Albertsons merger - what would have been the largest grocery merger in American history - protecting consumers and union workers nationwide. In April, Oregon and a multistate coalition went to trial in the Live Nation/Ticketmaster case after the Trump administration settled against the wishes of 34 states - and won. A jury found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had abused their monopoly power, resulting in higher ticket prices for consumers.

ODOJ is also challenging Nexstar's proposed acquisition of TEGNA, which would combine two of the largest local TV broadcast companies in the country. If approved, the merger would reduce competition in local news markets across the country, including in Portland; the merger would combine the KOIN and KGW newsrooms. Not only would this merger put more broadcast programming in the hands of fewer people, but it would also cut local jobs, increase cable bills, and significantly impact the delivery of news and other media content to Americans nationwide.

The 16 new positions do not draw on the state's general fund. Under Oregon law, when the state prevails in these cases, it can recover attorney fees from the corporations that forced the fight, shifting the cost of the work back to those responsible, not to taxpayers.