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A coalition of five Democratic state attorneys general announced a joint effort Monday to expand enforcement of their states’ respective antitrust laws in what they say is an effort to fill gaps left by the federal government.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the attorneys general of Oregon, Washington, Nevada and New York said during a virtual press conference Monday that the Trump administration had retreated from enforcing federal antitrust rules that bar mergers between competitors if the merger would harm consumers.
“When we go after corporations that monopolize markets, collude to fix prices, or merge to knock out competition, we’re fighting for everyday people,” Bonta said.
He cited California’s strong consumer protection laws as part of the reason the state has the fourth largest economy in the world. He said the multi-state coalition was needed to amplify the resources the individual states had available.
“Our cases are so much stronger when we pool our resources and share the workload,” Bonta said.
The plan to increase state scrutiny of corporate mergers that could create monopolies comes as the Trump administration has approved dozens of corporate mergers and acquisitions across multiple sectors since the new administration began in January 2025.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquired artificial intelligence networking company Juniper Networks in July 2025. T-Mobile-merged with UScellular about a month later. And that same month, two of the country’s largest television providers in the country, Nexstar and Tegna, agreed to merge.
All of those drew scrutiny from regulators but were approved anyway, according to U.S. Sen. Corey Booker, D-New Jersey, who has introduced legislation that would allow state attorneys general to have more time to challenge such mergers and empower them to re-examine certain mergers that were completed despite concerns about harming competition.
The Nexstar-Tegna merger was put on hold after it was challenged in March by the five attorneys general and three others. They argued the merger between the two largest owners of local television stations in the country would increase prices for consumers and lower the quality of local news carried on the stations.
Under Trump, the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust enforcement division have sought to settle complaints and prematurely end mandatory delays in certain mergers at higher rates than past administrations, according to the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization involved in economic analysis and policy advocacy.
There was roughly $2.3 trillion in value involved in acquisitions and mergers in 2025, which was about a 50% increase from 2024, according to Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield.
The Trump administration also sought to avoid implementing a new, more thorough disclosure form that required additional information about mergers before they happen from the parties involved.
The pre-notification form is legally required under a federal law called the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act. The administration of then-President Joe Biden introduced a new form to replace the existing one that would have required more information from the parties about their plans. That was scrapped by the Trump administration, which is involved in ongoing litigation to preserve its use of the older, more basic form.
The attorneys general gathered on Monday’s Zoom link said their partnership will not involve any formal joint budget requests, reports, or dedicated shared staffing but will take on cases as they come up, and resources shared will depend on the cases.
Rayfield said his office was requesting 16 additional employees to increase its antitrust enforcement and work with other states in the coalition.
“Not one office can do this alone,” Rayfield said. “Not one of these mergers impacts each state the same way, and so it is important that we partner together in the enforcement of these laws, and that’s what you see here today.”
Bonta said he was continuing to scrutinize a proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance, which itself was recently created when the media company Skydance Media purchased Paramount.
The states were part of a group that filed lawsuits to block the proposed merger between local TV affiliates Nexstar and Tegna, which the federal government had approved.
The states also filed their own anticompetition suit against Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, arguing it stifled competition, as the Trump administration settled a similar federal claim against the company before it went to trial. The states won their lawsuit in federal court in April when a jury found the company’s practices harmed the music industry and overcharged customers. Damages are pending in that decision.
Getting notifications before planned mergers are approved is a major advantage the federal government has in assessing potential impacts on consumers and markets, according to the attorneys general, who said states should replicate the 30-day notice window given to the federal government about impacts of planned mergers.
California recently passed a law that will require notification prior to certain mergers that will go into effect in 2027, according to Bonta.
Nevada tried unsuccessfully to pass a similar law last year.
— Story by Thomas Hughes, Bay City News
