# Summary: Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act of 2024
This legislation significantly strengthens federal antitrust enforcement authority and broadens the legal standards for challenging mergers and anticompetitive behavior. The bill makes it easier for the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to block company acquisitions by lowering the legal bar from "substantially lessen competition" to "create an appreciable risk of materially lessening competition," and explicitly includes concerns about quality, innovation, and choice—not just price. It also creates new rules requiring companies above certain size thresholds to prove their mergers won't harm competition, shifting the burden of proof away from government enforcers.
The legislation introduces a new law against "exclusionary conduct" by dominant firms—such as predatory pricing or unfair exclusionary practices—and authorizes substantial civil penalties of up to 15 to 30 percent of company revenues for antitrust violations. It establishes a new Competition Advocate office within the Federal Trade Commission to monitor merger outcomes and agency effectiveness, and creates an Office of Market Analysis and Data to track competition across industries. The bill also protects antitrust whistleblowers from retaliation, offers financial rewards of 10 to 30 percent of criminal fines for those providing information leading to successful prosecutions, prohibits forced arbitration in antitrust class action disputes, and authorizes $535 million for the Justice Department and $725 million for the FTC in fiscal year 2025, with subsequent years funded by merger filing fees.