Oregon Justice Department Expands Antitrust Division
The legislature approved 16 new positions to assist in fighting against high-profile mergers, citing the Nexstar-TEGNA merger.
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2026 – The Oregon Department of Justice is expanding to take a more aggressive approach to prevent high-profile mergers and monopolies in the state.
The Oregon legislature approved 16 new positions to help Attorney General Dan Rayfield investigate and fight corporate mergers. In a statement, Rayfield said, “corporations are being allowed to consolidate unchecked – with no federal oversight.” He argued reduced competition has left consumers with fewer choices across markets, from groceries to cable and internet service.
The new positions will double the number of attorneys and triple the overall capacity in the ODOJ Antitrust Division. They include five assistant attorneys general, four paralegals, six legal secretaries and administrative staff, and one economist.
The state said it has been taking on more cases “while the federal government abandons this type of enforcement,” citing its challenge to the proposed Nexstar-TEGNA merger, along with litigation against Live Nation-Ticketmaster and the blocked Kroger-Albertsons grocery merger.
The state's attorney general joined California, New York, Colorado, Illinois, Connecticut, North Carolina and Virginia in filing suits to block Nexstar Media Group from buying TEGNA Inc.
The merger would create a company that owns 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia. It would also give Nexstar the power to raise retransmission fees it charges to video programming distributors.
State attorneys general argue that the merger would increase media concentration in local television markets, potentially reducing competition for advertising and limiting consumer choice
In April, a federal judge blocked the $6.2 billion merger until an antitrust lawsuit is resolved. The deal was approved last year by the Federal Communications Commission.
The merger would make the two longtime competitor broadcast stations under the same owner, creating the largest broadcaster station in the nation. In Oregon, Nexstar owns Portland's KOIN-TV, an affiliate of CBS, and Tegna owns Portland’s KGW-TV, an affiliate of NBC.
“Right now, when you flip between KGW and KOIN, you’re getting two different newsrooms with two different perspectives,” Rayfield said in a statement. “This deal would change that. Suddenly those two competing newsrooms would answer to the same corporate boss, making the same budget and staffing decisions, and editorial choices about what stories get told – or don’t.”
Republicans in the state are questioning the approval of the new positions, saying there were too many positions created.
According to the Oregon Public Broadcasting Report, Representative Dwayne Yunker, R-Grants Pass, said, “California, a state ten times our size, recently added 22 antitrust positions. For a state of Oregon’s size, a proportional increase would be 2 or 3 positions, not 16.”
