After a two-decade lull following the Microsoft case, big antitrust enforcement cases are back in vogue. Both political parties are making antitrust regulation a 2020 campaign issue. Regulators, politicians, and voters have reasonable concerns about concentrated corporate power. But few policies are easier for big companies to game than antitrust regulation. Reformers should favor having fewer regulations for special interests to capture, not more.

Antitrust regulation is also often used for political purposes, not to enhance competition. President Trump has threatened antitrust actions against Facebook, Google, and Amazon, reportedly due in part to unfavorable press coverage appearing in Facebook feeds and Google searches, as well as the fact that Amazon’s Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. Trump’s Justice Department already tried, unsuccessfully, to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger, allegedly for political reasons. The company owns CNN, an even bigger nemesis of Trump’s.