The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division announced that it has identified more than 125 anticompetitive federal regulations for potential elimination.
The division worked with the Federal Trade Commission on the sweeping deregulation effort ordered by President Trump.
The review aims to remove government rules that block new businesses from entering markets. Officials say cutting red tape will boost competition and economic growth.
“In America we believe in free markets, not central planning by government regulators or powerful monopolists,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater. “Lowering barriers to entry by removing anticompetitive regulations will free America’s innovators and entrepreneurs to do what they do best: drive America’s future success.”
Trump’s executive order in April directed agencies to find regulations that predetermine economic winners and losers. The order specifically targeted rules that “operate to exclude new market entrants.”
The FTC and Justice Department consulted with federal agencies to compile the list. FTC Chairman Ferguson submitted the findings to the Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday.
The announcement represents a major shift in antitrust enforcement priorities: Rather than pursuing monopoly cases, regulators are focusing on dismantling government barriers to competition.
Officials provided no specifics about which regulations made the list, and the timeline for eliminating the rules remains unclear.
The deregulation push comes as Slater recently outlined the Justice Department’s enforcement philosophy at Georgetown Law. The DOJ has also recently secured guilty pleas in price-fixing cases and won remedies against Google in a monopolization lawsuit.
