In our latest podcast episode, hear from special guest Rob Bonta, the 34th Attorney General of the State of California. In his interview with Teddy Downey and Jeff Bliss, Bonta discusses his office’s antitrust enforcement actions in tech, oil & gas, healthcare and other growing sectors of the economy. He describes the unique enforcement tools California has at its disposal to encourage fair and legal business practices, keeping costs low and innovation high.
As the fifth – and soon to be fourth – largest economy in the world, Bonta considers California the “tentpole of American job creation,” which brings about a responsibility to encourage innovation and competition among businesses. He wants to ensure ample opportunity for startups, entrepreneurs and innovators to create new products and services without being stifled by larger corporations, who may abuse their monopoly power with anti-competitive practices.
“One theme that we’ve seen,” Bonta points out, “is tech companies who’ve dreamed and created and innovated and become very successful now turning around and saying someone else who wants to do that in their space will be crushed or acquired and not allowed to thrive and will be made part of the large tech company that was able to be successful. And it is in direct conflict to the innovative spirit that allowed the original tech company, say Facebook, to be successful in the first place. … Innovation and competition means innovation and competition for everyone, not just the one who gets big, fastest.”
Read the transcript of this conversation here.
