In the wake of major bank failures in the US, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has signaled that it plans to step up antitrust enforcement of bank mergers. In June 2023, the DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust...more
Following the US Department of Justice’s first criminal conviction for labor market antitrust violations in October 2022, and with scrutiny of labor agreements increasing internationally, the UK Competition and Markets...more
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission published a proposed rule that would categorically ban noncompete agreements between employers and a broad class of “workers,” including independent contractors and unpaid...more
1/24/2023
/ Comment Period ,
Contract Terms ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair Competition
On October 31, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) delivered on its promise to pursue criminal enforcement of Section 2 of the Sherman Act when it secured a guilty plea from a highway paving...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division secured its first win in a criminal enforcement of labor market antitrust violations on October 27, 2022, when nurse staffing company VDA OC pleaded guilty to violating...more
In April 2022, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, head of the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, fired a warning shot to companies: “For too long, our Section 8 enforcement has essentially been limited to...more
On May 16, 2022, eight months after President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate Alvaro Bedoya to serve as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, Bedoya was sworn in. The FTC includes five commissioners –...more
Nearly a year after the Supreme Court stripped the FTC of its ability to obtain equitable monetary relief under Section 13(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) in AMG Capital Management LLC v. FTC, the Commission...more
The Department of Justice’s first criminal wage-fixing and no-poach cases ended in acquittals, but we don’t expect this will lessen the DOJ’s scrutiny on competition in labor markets....more
On March 2, 2022, Richard Powers, the deputy assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, said that the division is prepared – for the first time in decades – to bring criminal charges...more
On March 2, 2022, Richard Powers, the deputy assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, said that the division is prepared – for the first time in decades – to bring criminal charges...more
On 22 October 2021, European Commission Executive Vice President and Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager invoked a new era for cartel enforcement in the EU, announcing:
A wave of dawn raids in the coming months....more
The FTC announced that it had issued Notices of Penalty Offense to for-profit colleges and was cracking down on unfair and deceptive conduct in the education marketplace.
During a closed press conference last week, the...more
On July 9, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on “Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” With 72 initiatives and directives by more than a dozen federal agencies, the order seeks to aggressively “reduce...more
The US Supreme Court ruled last week that the Federal Trade Commission doesn’t have the authority to seek equitable monetary relief in federal court under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act in AMG Capital Management LLC v. FTC....more
The Federal Trade Commission announced on January 11 that Everalbum, the developer of the photo storage application called Ever, settled allegations that it deceived users about its use of facial recognition technology and...more
After years of foreshadowing, the DOJ has made true on its promise to criminally prosecute “no-poach agreements,” announcing on January 7, 2021, that a grand jury indicted Surgical Care Affiliates LLC (SCA), a unit of...more
COVID-19 has disrupted supply and demand for public health products and other essential goods and services. In response to surging demand, prices for many of these items have increased sharply. These increases have drawn...more
As 2019 kicks off, the Cooley antitrust group highlights 10 recent developments and trends corporate counsel should be aware of – from the US Supreme Court and lower courts, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade...more
1/10/2019
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FRAND ,
Mergers ,
Patents ,
Popular ,
Sherman Act ,
The Clayton Act ,
UK Brexit
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this week issued an en banc decision reversing an earlier Ninth Circuit panel order that had found the Federal Trade Commission has no authority over “common carriers,” including...more
1. Trump’s appointments set the antitrust agenda for 2018 -
Almost a year into the Trump Administration, leadership at the Department of Justice Antitrust Division is now set. The Senate confirmed Makan Delrahim as...more
1/25/2018
/ Antitrust Division ,
Cartels ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
IP License ,
No-Poaching ,
Ohio v American Express ,
Popular ,
Price-Fixing ,
Trump Administration ,
Vertical Mergers ,
Wage-Fixing
1. Transition to a Trump Administration is top of the agenda -
President-elect Donald Trump's DOJ and FTC transition team appointments and public short list of candidates to run the agencies indicate that antitrust...more
1/12/2017
/ Antitrust Division ,
Big Data ,
CFIUS ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Mergers ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Trump Administration ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ,
Wage-Fixing