he staid game of golf is not the usual backdrop of an international controversy. But since the PGA Tour stunned the world bya merger with LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed upstart that had been luring players with lucrative contracts, it set off an immediate and intense backlash—with many of the sport’s players and fans expressing outrage over what it could mean for the future of the game.
“The PGA is selling out to the Saudi regime trying to draw attention away from its atrocious human rights record with a new golf monopoly,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, tells TIME. “I have serious concerns about this PGA-LIV deal, and it should be closely scrutinized by the Justice Department.”
While the PGA for decades held a monopoly position over professional golf, the deal would establish a new dominant association with complete control over an industry that only recently gained a competitor. The Justice Department, which was already conducting an antitrust investigation into the PGA Tour, will review the proposed deal. So, too, will antitrust enforcers in the United Kingdom and Europe.
“It looks illegal what they’re up to here,” Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor who served on President Joe Biden’s National Economic Council, tells TIME. “You have one sort of monopolist or quasi-monopolist in golf. They have a challenger. The idea that the existing dominant monopolist can buy out its challenger because it’s causing problems is just sort of a facial violation of antitrust laws.
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