A 2-Year-Old Executive Order on Competition Could Shed Light on the Future of Pro Golf’s Alliance

President Biden issued an order in July 2021 focused on eliminating anticompetitive and monopolistic behavior.

Could impending bank mergers portend what will happen with the future of the agreement between the DP World Tour, PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia?

Before LIV Golf hit its first shot at the Centurion Club outside of London in July 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that may now, two years since its issuance, determine the upstart league’s fate and how the agreement between the controlling parties will be reviewed by the U.S. government.

The Executive Order, issued July 9, 2021, from the White House and titled "Promoting Competition in the American Economy," focused specifically on eliminating anticompetitive and monopolistic behavior.

While professional sports were not mentioned with all the other industries like banking, farming, communications and transportation, the focus of the order was on ensuring competition.

“This order affirms that it is the policy of my Administration to enforce the antitrust laws to combat the excessive concentration of industry, the abuses of market power, and the harmful effects of monopoly and monopsony,” Biden said.

On June 20, Bloomberg reported that lawyers for the Justice Department are looking into how they will review bank mergers, a process that could create a longer and more focused method in the future.

On its face, this would have little to do with the potential agreement between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF. But the ultimate goal of the executive order is to allow for free markets and to vigorously enforce the antitrust laws of the United States by eliciting the help of not only the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission but other agencies that include Commerce, Defense and Treasury. The fact that Congress is now involved and since the agreement was announced June 6, not just sports media but the mainstream media and the public is also an interested bystander.

According to the framework agreement’s Section 10, titled “Termination,” a definitive agreement must be entered into by Dec. 31 of this year and unless the framework agreement is extended by mutual consent of the parties, the parties can revert to operating their respective businesses in the state that existed pre-agreement in their discretion.

Review and analysis by the government on its best day is long and tedious, requiring much back and forth.

If the Justice Department or another agency believes that this relationship, agreement or merger between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF is potentially monopolistic or anticompetitive, the process for review will take even longer.

Newly confirmed assistant attorney general of the antitrust division of the Justice Department Jonathan Kanter was interviewed on CNBC on May 8 and explained that his division is focused on promoting a competitive, resilient economy and that while thousands of applications are filed at Justice, the vast majority of deals don’t get challenged.

“We look at every deal on its merits, we apply the law as it’s written and then we evaluate if there is a substantial lessening of competition such is that we have to go to court to challenge a deal,” Kanter said. “There are a wide range of considerations that go into antitrust enforcement, and we have to look at the facts of each specific market on its own.”