Other LanguagesWashington's Constitution has prohibited monopolies and combinations in restraint of trade since 1889. Wash. Const. art. XII, § 22 ( "monopolies and trusts shall never be allowed"). To ensure that founding principle, the Office of the Attorney General's Antitrust Division is responsible for reviewing proposed mergers and health care transactions, investigating anticompetitive conduct, and enforcing state and federal antitrust laws. The Antitrust Division receives no general fund support, funding a portion of its review of health care transactions through pre-transaction notification filing fees, and funding the remainder of its work through recoveries made in successful enforcement actions.
Our office's Antitrust Division investigates and prosecutes:
- Price-fixing and other forms of collusion. Price-fixing includes an explicit agreement among competitors to raise, fix, or otherwise maintain the price at which their goods or services are sold to the detriment of either the competitive marketplace, or consumers, workers, or entrepreneurs.
- Business mergers, health care transactions, and monopolistic practices that would result in reduced competition and harm to consumers or workers.
For a more in-depth description of antitrust laws, read our guide.
For AGO news releases related to antitrust, visit our News Release page.
In this page you will find resources for the general public, as well as Government Procurement Representatives. You can file an Antitrust complaint or a Healthcare Transaction Notice, and review our latest cases and important information regarding gasoline prices and the labor market in Washington.
If you have any information that you think we should know about and your browser supports forms, you can file a complaint online here. If your browser does not support forms, you may either email us or print out the form and mail it to us at:
Office of the Attorney General
Antitrust Division
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000
Seattle, WA 98104-3188
Telephone: 206-587-5510
Please include your address and telephone number so we may contact you for additional information. The Antitrust Division only processes complaints that involve either Washington state residents or businesses located in Washington state.
Additionally, please be aware that your complaint and any related documents that you submit will become "public records." Under state law, public records are subject to public records disclosure requests and may therefore be seen by other people. Please see the Open Government portion of the Attorney General website.