Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association sent a letter to Senator Al Franken, (D-Minn.) today in response to his questions asking about antitrust issues arising from the proposed Comcast/Time Warner merger. There has been concern for both consumers and the overall economy about exacerbating a number of competitive issues in the Internet access, TV distribution, and video programming markets that are already highly concentrated. With limited or sometimes even no local competition, a combined Comcast/Time Warner would have nearly 50 percent of the high-speed Internet connections in the US and could use that power to discriminate against online websites and services that threaten its legacy cable business.
CCIA has been a vigorous advocate for competition and open markets for 40 years. In his response letter, President & CEO Ed Black said, “Legally, the statute is clear. If regulators were to conclude that the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger does not have a chance of substantially lessening competition, then it is hard to imagine a real world merger that would. Therefore, regulators should block this merger, not only for the good of innovation, the Internet industry, and of consumers; but also for the sanctity of antitrust law itself.”