Antitrust Enforcement Globally Needs to Agree on Norms, DOJ's Delrahim Says

Views of antitrust enforcement differ internationally, and even within the U.S., but there needs to be worldwide understanding there can be no exemption from universal procedural norms, DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim told a New York University School of Law audience Friday, according to a transcript. Principles include nondiscrimination, he said, and when foreign competition agencies occasionally favor domestic companies or discriminate against foreign firms, they violate that norm and "engage in short­sighted and counterproductive public policy." Procedural fairness and transparency are also among those principles, Delrahim said. He said the division's International Section "will continue to be a point of emphasis," with Roger Alford -- most recently University of Notre Dame associate dean-international and graduate programs -- named division deputy assistant attorney general. Delrahim said his renaming the Foreign Commerce Section as the International Section "emphasize[s] the breadth of its work." He said an Antitrust Division priority is making its technical assistance and support available to competition authorities in other nations and in modernizing its facilities with investments in new equipment and technology.