WASHINGTON—The Justice Department has been quietly ramping up antitrust enforcement under the Biden administration, despite not having a politically confirmed official to serve as antitrust chief.
Antitrust staffers are advancing investigations of business practices at
Apple Inc.,
Alphabet Inc.’s
Google (which already is facing one Justice Department antitrust lawsuit) and
Visa Inc.
The department’s antitrust division also is deep into scrutinizing some high-profile pending mergers. Those include a publishing industry deal in which Penguin Random House’s parent company is seeking to buy Simon & Schuster, and
UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s
planned acquisition of health-care technology company
Attorney General
Merrick Garland,
speaking at the New Yorker Festival on Monday, described the antitrust division as “energized and eager to go forward,” saying the department had ongoing matters “involving everything from agriculture, to banking, to real estate.”
“We do think that ensuring fair competition is an essential element of our obligation to ensure that justice is done,” he said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland called the antitrust division ‘energized and eager to go forward’ earlier this week.
Photo:
J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
The department’s work comes at a time when President Biden has made promoting economic…