By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Two Japanese air freight forwarding companies agreed Friday to plead guilty and pay $18.9 million in criminal fines in a conspiracy to fix air freight forwarding fees for cargo shipments from Japan to the United States.
The Department of Justice has turned its attention to the beer industry and is trying to halt the merger of Budweiser maker, Anheuser-Busch InBev, with Mexican brewer, Grupo Modelo.
The Obama administration came out against the marriage of two beer giants in a fight against an increasingly consolidated industry.
"Consumers were forced to pay higher prices on the goods they buy every day as a result of the noncompetitive and collusive service fees charged by these companies," said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer, who heads the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. "Prosecuting these kinds of global, price-fixing conspiracies continues to be a top priority of the antitrust division."
Japanese air freight forwarders fined $18.9M for price-fixing →
"The department is taking this action to stop a merger between major beer brewers, because it would result in less competition and higher beer prices for American consumers," said Bill Baer, assistant attorney general for Justice's antitrust division. "If ABI fully owned and controlled Modelo, ABI would be able to increase beer prices to American consumers. This lawsuit seeks to prevent ABI from eliminating Modelo as an important competitive force in the beer industry."
