Trump nominee for antitrust chief testifies anti-conservative advertising trade group engaged in 'collusion'
President Donald Trump's nominee to head of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division said an infamous advertising trade association that allegedly organized a boycott of conservative media engaged in a "certain amount of collusion."
The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), an advertising trade association founded by the World Federation of Advertisers, defined itself as a "voluntary cross-industry initiative created in 2019 to address digital safety."
The group said it was established after the Christchurch New Zealand Mosque shootings to protect brands from having their advertisements placed next to "illegal or harmful content" such as child pornography or posts supporting terrorism. The group maintained that it was "apolitical."
However, the House Judiciary Committee issued a report accusing the organization of colluding to punish organizations it didn’t approve of politically and engaging in industry-wide advertising boycotts on politically disfavored platforms, news outlets and podcasts including Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Spotify, Fox News, The Daily Wire and Breitbart News.
When asked by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) at a hearing on Wednesday if advertisers colluding to boycott a specific "conservative news site" was illegal price fixing under federal antitrust laws, the Trump DOJ’s antitrust division chief nominee Abigail Slater said she couldn’t answer a hypothetical but quickly steered the conversation toward GARM.
"What we've seen in terms of reporting and facts and evidence in from the House GARM report... what was evidence there was a pattern of conduct involving a trade association which for and on behalf of national brands and international brands selectively stopped advertising dollars or counsel companies not to send advertising dollars to certain companies," Slater said.
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"I think it's fair to say, a certain amount of collusion went on via this trade association, and I think that pattern of conduct is is quite troubling," she testified.
Slater claimed that GARM’s actions deprived the affected companies of 90% of U.S. ad spending.
Adidas, American Express, Bayer, BP, Carhartt, Chanel, CVS and General Motors, were all allegedly involved with GARM.
GARM’s leader and co-founder, Rob Rakowitz, has expressed frustration with "extreme global interpretation of the US Constitution" and dismissed using "‘principles for governance’ and applying them as literal law from 230 years ago (made by white men exclusively)."
GARM shut down in 2024, citing "allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances."