A quick look at the top headlines in Antitrust and Competition
North America Antitrust Digest | November 2025
Headline Highlights
In the spotlight
A breakdown of the latest news, moves and trends
Senate Judiciary Committee Examines Competition Issues in the Seed and Fertilizer Industries
On October 28, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Pressure Cooker: Competition Issues in the Seed & Fertilizer Industries.” During the hearing, witnesses — which included industry representatives, family farmers, and the Director of Competition at the Progressive Policy Institute — discussed challenges facing American farmers but disagreed on the causes.
Representatives from the Fertilizer Institute and American Soybean Association, for example, pointed to inflation, the geopolitical climate, and litigation and regulatory concerns as some of the strongest headwinds their industries are facing. On the other hand, John Latham, president of Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, an independent seed company in Alexander, Iowa, described how operations like his have been priced out of the market by the big seed companies. Diana Moss from the Progressive Policy Institute backed up Latham’s claims, arguing that industry consolidation “puts the squeeze on farmers” and that the role of antitrust laws has been “less than exemplary” in regulating ag biotech.
A USDA study on concentration in the agricultural marketplace found that from 2018-2020, two seed companies accounted for 72% of planted corn acres and 66% of planted soybean acres. A Texas A&M University study found that the four-firm concentration for nitrogen fertilizer in the U.S. was 77%, while potash and phosphate fertilizer markets are 100% controlled by the top four companies.
Senators from both parties, including Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-IL), agreed that extreme market consolidation has left farmers without choice or fair prices. Grassley, along with Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) proposed bipartisan legislation — the Fertilizer Research Act — as one solution. The bill would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct a study on competition and pricing in the fertilizer industry. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, also discussed how farmers are caught in a consolidation bottleneck and argued that federal regulations create anti-competitive “moats” by imposing compliance costs small operators cannot afford.
Bottom Line: Ultimately, the hearing continues a trend of growing bipartisan concern of concentration across sectors, including in agriculture. This most recently surfaced with the President’s announcement that the Antitrust Division would begin an examination of beef prices.
A full hearing summary from FGS Global’s Food & Agriculture team can be found here.
Ryan Baasch Expected to Join Federal Trade Commission
It has been widely reported that President Donald Trump plans to nominate Ryan Baasch, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the National Economic Council (NEC), to serve as a Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission. If confirmed, Baasch would replace Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, who is expected to be nominated as U.S. Attorney for Utah.
Baasch’s nomination would maintain the current 3-0 Republican majority; The Supreme Court, at least for now, has validated the President’s firings of Democratic commissioners Rebeca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Slaughter has sought legal action to be reinstated while Bedoya has since joined the American Economic Liberties Project as a Senior Advisor.
Given his background at the White House and his previous work for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, it is expected that Baasch will focus his efforts at the Commission on curbing perceived corporate overreach while advancing the administration’s priorities on innovation and competition policy.
At the NEC, Baasch worked on technology policy issues spanning artificial intelligence, space commercialization, and telecommunications. Before joining the White House, he served for three years in the Texas Attorney General’s Office, where he supervised offensive civil litigation and argued appellate cases involving First Amendment and technology matters. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton credited him with helping launch the state’s data privacy enforcement team and advancing major cases related to Big Tech and government overreach.
Bottom Line: If confirmed, Baasch could help steer the FTC’s approach to emerging technology oversight at a moment when questions about data privacy, AI accountability, and Big Tech’s market power remain central to both political and regulatory agendas.
Connecting the dots
Essential insights and analysis
At the ABA Antitrust Fall Forum in Washington, D.C. this week, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota delivered a forceful critique of rising market consolidation and called for a bipartisan response to restore competition. She laid out a four-part agenda: updating antitrust laws for the digital age, increasing federal enforcement resources, empowering state attorneys general, and defending the rule of law.
Klobuchar argued that antitrust attorneys will play a key role in retaining a competitive economy, noting that the median American household pays an estimated $5,000 per year in costs related to market consolidation. “That’s not how capitalism is supposed to work,” she stated. As a solution, Klobuchar discussed her proposed legislation, the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act, which would shift some regulatory burdens onto merging parties and scrutinize claimed efficiencies.
On federal enforcement, Klobuchar celebrated the “first successful monopolization trial in over 20 years” when the Justice Department took on Google, and highlighted ongoing cases filed against tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Apple, and RealPage. She emphasized these cases reflected an investment in enforcement resources at the DOJ and FTC. She also discussed the importance of state attorneys general as the “third leg” of antitrust enforcement, citing joint federal-state actions in Big Tech and retail cases and praised Congress’s move to protect state venue choices.
A Sign of the Times: While Klobuchar’s speech highlighted bipartisan successes to enhance antitrust enforcement and combat market consolidation, she expressed concern that growing partisanship could hamper these efforts. Klobuchar warned that recent attacks on career civil servants and the politicization of enforcement threaten the integrity of antitrust law, and she closed her speech by urging enforcers to keep antitrust above partisan politics.
November 12, 2025