Live Online Policy Forum 

# Would Proposed Antitrust Changes Help or Harm Startups and Small Businesses? 

##### Watch the Event 

Download:

[ 

Video 

](https://fastly-unsigned-us-east-1-prod.brightcovecdn.com/media/v1/pmp4/static/clear/6039378657001/9274a93f-9c63-4790-959e-e4d42667c933/1ac26b82-2480-477b-b232-0efbdd8771e4/main.mp4) 

[ 

Audio 

](https://feeds.acast.com/public/streams/5e2e15a046f4465f31c89d8c/episodes/6650c6c1251d820012ae88aa.mp3) 

Join the conversation on X using [\#CatoTechnology](https://x.com/hashtag/CatoTechnology). Follow [@CatoInstitute](https://x.com/catoinstitute) on X to get future event updates, live streams, and videos from the Cato Institute.

Date and Time 

May 21, 2024 3 - 4 PM EDT 

Location 

Live Online 

Share This Event 

##### Featuring 

![Svetlana Gans](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2024-05/Svetlana-Gans.jpeg?itok=sCpgGbco) 

Svetlana Gans 

Gibson Dunn

![Elise Phillips](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2024-05/elise-phillips-Cropped.jpg?itok=7SBIc0HP) 

Elise Phillips 

Public Knowledge

[ 

](https://twitter.com/elise_phillips) 

![w-rinehart-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-12/w-rinehart-cropped.jpg?itok=Gk-eeYAj) 

William Rinehart 

American Enterprise Institute

[ 

](https://twitter.com/willrinehart) 

[![Jennifer-Huddleston-img-cropped2.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2023-06/Jennifer-Huddleston-img-cropped2.jpg?itok=nA04B0o7)](/people/jennifer-huddleston) 

[Jennifer Huddleston](/people/jennifer-huddleston)

Senior Fellow, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/jrhuddles) 

May is National Small Business Month. Small businesses and startups play an important part in the technology sector, and many proposed policy changes could be particularly impactful on them. While often antitrust is thought of as a “big business” issue, the reality is that changes to competition policy, such as restrictions on mergers and acquisitions, affect businesses of all sizes.

Many proponents of antitrust policy changes assert that these changes are necessary to protect small businesses particularly in the technology sector. Some assert that there is currently a “kill zone” where successful startups are gobbled up by today’s tech giants before they can become rivals, while others say these transactions occur in a healthy market for a variety of reasons that often benefit small companies and consumers as well as larger companies. Do the data support the idea of a “kill zone”? How might antitrust changes impact the evolution of small businesses and the choices they have in their journey?

#### Additional Resources

- [If the FTC Gets Its Way, Could This Be the Last Prime Day?](https://www.cato.org/blog/ftc-gets-its-way-could-be-last-prime-day) by Jennifer Huddleston
- [Antitrust Laws and Those Wildly Popular “Dupes”](https://www.cato.org/commentary/antitrust-laws-those-wildly-popular-dupes) by Jennifer Huddleston
- [Don’t Let Policy‐​Makers Break Up a Good Thing](https://www.cato.org/commentary/dont-let-policy-makers-break-good-thing) by Jennifer Huddleston
- [Draft Merger Guidelines for Public Comment, FTC-2023–0043](https://www.cato.org/public-comments/draft-merger-guidelines-public-comment-ftc-2023-0043) by Jennifer Huddleston

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).