Merger of PGA and LIV Golf is an Antitrust Violation and a Human Rights Disaster
By Joel D. Joseph
The antitrust laws of the United States prohibit combinations in restraint of trade. The merger of the PGA tour and LIV Golf, Saudi Arabia's cash-rich start-up, forces professional golfers to play for one entity. This is clearly a monopolistic merger.
In addition, the merger white-washes Saudi Arabia's murderous leader, Mohammed Bin Salman, who ordered the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi. On November 16, 2018, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Mohammed Bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's assassination and dismemberment. Saudi Arabia is an undemocratic, feudal society where the royal family controls the nation.
The Biden administration recently declassified a 16-page FBI report tying 9/11 hijackers to Saudi officials living in the United States. The Federal Bureau of Investigation found that Saudi officials supported the 9/11 hijackers. FBI agents concluded that Saudi diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy "tasked" an associate to help the hijackers. When they arrived in Los Angeles al-Thumairy told the associate the hijackers were "two very significant people" more than a year before the attacks. Saudi government employee, Omar al-Bayoumi, was witnessed waiting by a window for the hijackers to arrive in the United States. Both Thumairy and Bayoumi were each just a degree or two of separation away from others on a phone tree of known international terrorists. The FBI found that Bayoumi was in "almost daily contact" with a man with ties to the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center attack and spent the night in a hotel with another man connected to one of Osama bin Laden's senior lieutenants.
Antitrust Violations
While professional baseball is exempt from U.S. antitrust laws, professional golf does not enjoy an exemption from the same antitrust laws. All sports, except baseball, are subject to U.S. antitrust laws. See Radovich v. NFL, 352 U.S. 445 (1957).
The Department of Justice is investigating the PGA and LIV golf for antitrust violations. The investigation began because the PGA was banning golfers who participated in LIV events from participating in PGA events. The focus of that investigation must now change to the anticompetitive effects of the proposed merger.
The DOJ's Antitrust Division is reported to have reached out to players' agents and sent inquiries about the PGA Tour's actions in recent months. The Anti-Trust Division sought information concerning LIV Golf and PGA Tour bylaws governing players' participation in golf events. The antitrust laws are premised on the idea that fair competition in capitalism is a good thing. The entry by LIV Golf has caused the PGA Tour to react by putting into place a new bonus Thus, this competition for talent has already had significant benefits for both the LIV and PGA Tour players. With this merger, however, competition will now be stifled. If after investigating the PGA Tour and LIV merger, the Justice Department concludes that the combination violates the antitrust laws, it can sue in federal court.
Democracy
From the earliest days of antitrust laws in the United States, the promotion and preservation of democracy was one of the goals of the drafters and supporters of federal antitrust laws. Drafters of the United States Constitution debated, but rejected an anti-monopoly clause. In the landmark 1911 Standard Oil decision that broke up the leading oil producers, Supreme Court Justice Harlan's concurrence expressed these concerns in terms of the replacement of human slavery with a new form of economic slavery to trusts and monopolies. Standard Oil Co. of N.J. v. United States, 221 U.S. 1, 83 (1910) (Harlan, J., concurring). Justice Harlan said, "the slavery that would result from aggregations of capital in the hands of a few individuals and corporations controlling, for their own profit and advantage exclusively, the entire business of the country, including the production and sale of the necessaries of life."
In summary, the professional golf members of the PGA should not approve the merger of the PGA with LIV golf. The PGA is a nonprofit organization. It should not be allowed to merge with a for-profit, anti-American, undemocratic, murderous regime. If the PGA does not pull out of this anticompetitive agreement, the Justice Department should sue to prevent the merger from taking place.
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