President Joe Biden's antitrust enforcement has been on a deal-blocking crusade ahead of the presidential elections in November.
On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission targeted the fashion industry for the first time. It sued to block Tapestry's $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri Holdings, a deal that would combine Tapestry's Coach and Kate Spade brands with Capri's Michael Kors brand.
"If allowed, the deal would eliminate direct head-to-head competition between Tapestry's and Capri's brands. It would also give Tapestry a dominant share of the "accessible luxury" handbag market, a term coined by Tapestry to describe quality leather and craftsmanship handbags at an affordable price," FTC wrote in a statement.
The Biden administration is oddly concerned about luxury handbags at a time when inflation is reaccelerating and continues to decimate households nationwide. Many folks are plagued with an affordability crisis, such as barely affording gas at the pump, food at the supermarket, power bills, health insurance, rent, and multiple streaming platforms. Many have maxed out credit cards and drained personal savings to survive in the era of failed Bidenomics.
But for some reason, Biden and the radical leftists in the White House are more concerned about fashion...
"With the goal to become a serial acquirer, Tapestry seeks to acquire Capri to further entrench its stronghold in the fashion industry," Henry Liu, director of the FTC's competition bureau, said in a statement.
Liu continued, "This deal threatens to deprive consumers of the competition for affordable handbags, while hourly workers stand to lose the benefits of higher wages and more favorable workplace conditions."
FTC's move makes little sense, considering the federal agency has no issue with fashion behemoths like LVMH or Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, which owns 75 luxury brands across six sectors.
The Biden administration's decision to tackle the handbag market seems like a massive waste of time and taxpayer funds. If consumers want to spend money on overpriced made-in-China handbags, by all means, let them. Why not deal with anticompetitive activity in industries that are more relevant to the everyday lives of working poor Americans?
"There is no question that this is a pro-competitive, pro-consumer deal and that the FTC fundamentally misunderstands both the marketplace and the way in which consumers shop," Tapestry told the Financial Times in a statement.
The FTC "is the only regulator that did not approve this transaction, which received required approvals from all other jurisdictions," Capri continued. Regulators in Europe and Japan have approved the deal.
"Consumers have hundreds of handbag choices at every price point across all channels, and barriers to entry are low," Tapestry wrote in a separate statement, adding, "Capri intends to vigorously defend this case in court alongside Tapestry and complete the pending acquisition."
Bloomberg pointed out, "Since their appointment, Khan and Justice Department antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter have brought the highest number of merger challenges since the US began requiring antitrust reviews before deals close in 1976" and "their success in litigation has been more mixed, however, with the FTC losing two high- profile challenges in its first year."
This administration really does have asinine people running almost every federal agency. The American people see this as polling data has collapsed for Biden and his woke clown show.
