‘Big Isn’t Bad,’ Justice Dept. Antitrust Chief Says

Concentration in certain industries isn’t necessarily a problem, but companies that dominate a market don’t get a “free pass” to violate antitrust laws, the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division said April 13.

“Big is not bad,” said DOJ Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim at the American Bar Association’s annual antitrust conference in Washington. “Big that behaves badly is bad.”

Delrahim’s comments are his most forthcoming to date about the wave of sentiment against big companies in the U.S. and Europe.

To say the U.S. has a monopolization problem is “too broad of a brush to paint on this ...