The U.S. agencies concluded 11 significant merger investigations in the first half of 2024—just one shy of the total concluded in all of 2023. Activity has picked up considerably since last year but is still below the...more
8/7/2024
/ Abandonment ,
Consent Decrees ,
EU ,
EUMR ,
European Commission ,
European Court of Justice (ECJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Investigations ,
Mergers ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Settlement ,
The Clayton Act
The U.S. agencies announced the conclusion of six significant merger investigations in Q1 2024, double the number seen last quarter. This marks the end of six quarters of three or fewer significant investigations. In line...more
Only 12 significant merger investigations concluded in 2023—a drop of 40 percent from just last year and by far the lowest in DAMITT history. This observed and verifiable drop sharply contrasts with recent reports that...more
The Merger Guidelines lower the market concentration threshold for the presumption that a merger is illegal.
Deals that place combined market shares above 30 percent with a significant increase in concentration are...more
United States -
All significant U.S. merger investigations concluded in either a complaint or an abandoned transaction. Four of the last five quarters have now concluded without any consent agreements, demonstrating the...more
Dechert’s antitrust group submitted comments today to U.S. antitrust agencies on their proposed top-to-bottom overhaul of premerger antitrust filings made under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The Federal Trade Commission...more
All significant U.S. merger investigations concluded in either a complaint or an abandoned transaction. Three of four quarters over the last year have now concluded without any consent agreements, demonstrating the agencies’...more
On July 19, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (collectively, the agencies) issued their long-awaited draft Merger Guidelines. The draft Merger Guidelines, once finalized, will...more
Last month, New York State passed an amendment to the New York Public Health Law (the “NYPHL”) to require certain “health care entities” that are party to “material transactions,” including mergers and other change-of-control...more
Sixty percent of significant investigations concluded with a complaint or abandoned transaction in 2022. This shatters last year’s record of 37 percent. The 10 complaints filed in 2022 are also a DAMITT record. Those are...more
Key Facts -
United States -
• Only three significant merger investigations concluded in Q3 2022. All three investigations ended with a complaint or an abandoned transaction. For the first time in more than a decade,...more
The Boiling Points collection features real-world documents that government antitrust agencies used against merging companies. Dechert’s antitrust/competition practice curated the collection from an exhaustive review of...more
8/16/2022
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Asset Deals ,
Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Document Management ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Merger Controls ,
Regulatory Standards
In both our DAMITT 2021 Report and our Q1 2022 Report, we warned that parties to transactions subject to significant merger investigations were more likely to see the FTC or DOJ sue to block their deal or push them to abandon...more
7/26/2022
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Statistics ,
EU ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Government Investigations ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Merger Controls
The government had lost seven consecutive hospital merger litigations before the FTC’s challenge to the Evanston Northwestern/Highland Park merger in 2003. That losing streak forced the FTC to reassess the economic tests used...more
In the U.S., “significant” merger investigations include Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act reportable transactions for which the result of the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Antitrust Division of the...more
4/21/2022
/ Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Merger Agreements ,
Merger Controls ,
Settlement Agreements
The number of significant U.S. merger investigations concluded in the first year of the Biden administration was in line with the average observed during the Trump administration....more
Key Facts - United States - Dechert has yet to see an increase in concluded significant U.S. merger investigations despite a surge in merger filings that began in the fall of 2020. Instead, we continue to see a decrease in...more
Key facts - United States - Despite Big Tech headlines, the percentage of significant U.S. merger investigations involving technology companies was below the average for the last decade. By contrast, merger investigations in...more
Key takeaways - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and antitrust agencies in North America and Europe have launched a Task Force to evaluate their current approach to pharmaceutical mergers reviews. The Task Force has sought...more
DAMITT has observed an across-the-board increase in the average duration of significant EU Merger investigations: Phase I remedy cases resolved in Q1 2021 averaged 10.5 months; while Phase II investigations averaged 17.3...more
Key Takeaways:
- FTC commissioners have seven year terms and cannot be removed for political or policy reasons.
- Absent a resignation, Republican commissioners will retain control of the FTC until 2023.
- Companies should...more
In 2020, the defense side ended a 15-year drought in litigating the fix. When the U.S. antitrust authorities seek to block a proposed merger, they must obtain an injunction in federal court. One strategy the defense can...more
On April 8, 2020, Judge Leonard Stark of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware denied an injunction requested by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to block Sabre Corp.’s $360...more
“Big data” has become one of the hottest subjects for antitrust enforcers around the globe. There is concern that large tech companies are amassing vast amounts of data and will use that data to entrench their dominant...more
1/28/2020
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Acquisitions ,
Aetna ,
Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
AT&T ,
Big Data ,
CVS ,
Databases ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Divestiture ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Machine Learning ,
Mergers ,
Popular ,
Time Warner
In a decision with significant implications for cross-border criminal and regulatory investigations in both the UK and U.S., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently overturned two convictions for...more
9/2/2017
/ Compelled Testimony ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Cross-Border ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
Foreign Jurisdictions ,
Indictments ,
International Litigation ,
Libor ,
Reversal ,
Self-Incrimination ,
UK