The Organization for Competitive Markets has filed comments with the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission on their Vertical Merger Guidelines. OCM Director of Policy and Research Ben Gotschall says those guidelines haven’t been revised since 1982 and have several shortcomings that need fixing.
He says the current guidelines don’t give enough protection to consumers, or farmers and ranchers and need to be thrown out and replaced.
Gotschall says there’s also a comment period going on now for the Packers and Stockyards Act rules. He says you can go to OCM’s website to find out how to submit those.
Gotschall says its critical both the Vertical Merger Guidelines and Packers and Stockyards Act rules are solid and give protection to everyone whether it be agriculture, consumers or companies.
