On Friday, July 9, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14036, “Promoting Competition in the American Economy” (see recent alert here). The EO includes 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies in an...more
Key Points -
On Friday, July 9, 2021, President Biden issued EO 14036, “Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” The EO includes 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies in an aim to address competition...more
On Friday, June 11, lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee, led by Antitrust Subcommittee Chair David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ranking Member Ken Buck (R-CO), unveiled their bipartisan legislative agenda to hold Big Tech...more
Last month the Supreme Court dismantled a longstanding FTC enforcement tool in a unanimous decision holding that the FTC Act does not permit the agency to use its authority to seek injunctive relief under Section 13(b) as a...more
Key Points -
The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2021, a bi-partisan proposal to increase Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR) filing fees for the largest transactions, has passed the Senate...more
On Thursday, February 4, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, announced the introduction of a sweeping antitrust reform...more
Key Points Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) have temporarily suspended discretionary grants of early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR)...more
2/5/2021
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements
Key Points
- Until recently, the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1954 made the “business of insurance,” including the business of health insurance, immune from federal antitrust laws.
- The Competitive Health Insurance Reform...more
Key Points
- The Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 requires parties that meet certain transaction size and other tests to file premerger notification forms with both the Federal Trade Commission...more
2/3/2021
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
Threshold Requirements
On Tuesday, December 8, the House of Representatives passed S. 2258, the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act, by voice vote, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk. The measure, which unanimously passed the...more
12/16/2020
/ ACPERA ,
Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Civil Liability ,
Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act of 2015 ,
Criminal Antitrust Litigation ,
GAO ,
Joint and Several Liability ,
Leniency Programs ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
In this episode, Akin Gump antitrust partners Gorav Jindal and Corey Roush, fresh off a two-week trial, discuss the nuts and bolts of litigating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the topics covered:
- Antitrust litigation...more
- On April 21, 2020 the FTC announced a record settlement of $9.3 million with an online retailer in an action brought under the “Mail Order Rule.”
- The Mail Order Rule, which applies to online purchases, requires...more
- As of March 17, 2020, the FTC and DOJ will accept only electronic submissions of HSR notifications (no filings accepted March 16, 2020).
- Early termination of the HSR waiting period will not be granted for any HSR filing...more
- The Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 requires parties that meet certain transaction size and other tests to file premerger notification forms with both the Federal Trade Commission and Department of...more
1/28/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
Threshold Requirements
• Today, September 26, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will host a public workshop in Washington, D.C. concerning its “Made in USA” enforcement program. A webcast will be available...
• The FTC is inviting public...more
• The Department of Justice (DOJ) will now evaluate corporate compliance programs as a factor in determining whether to bring criminal antitrust charges.
• New guidance also clarifies how compliance programs factor into...more
• The DOJ recently highlighted the benefits of robust corporate compliance programs and its interest in incentivizing such programs as the common thread running throughout its recent enforcement policy changes, including the...more
• The U.S. Supreme Court split 5-4 on how to apply Illinois Brick’s prohibition on federal indirect purchaser lawsuits to a case where plaintiff app purchasers bought apps from the Apple App Store, paying a price set by the...more
5/20/2019
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Apple Inc v Pepper ,
Class Action ,
Direct Purchasers ,
Dismissals ,
Internet Retailers ,
iPhone ,
Mobile Apps ,
Monopolization ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS
On April 11, 2019, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought announced a policy for review of federal agency rules and guidance that represents a significant change of process for issuance of...more
• The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have indicated in the past that they believe that certain agreements between employers not to poach each other’s employees are...more
4/2/2019
/ Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Franchise Agreements ,
Franchisors ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Horizontal Restraint ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
No-Poaching ,
Per Se Rule ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
Vertical Restraints
• The Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 requires parties to transactions meeting certain size and other tests to file premerger notification forms with both the Federal Trade Commission and Department of...more
2/19/2019
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Section 8 ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements
In this episode, Akin Gump antitrust partners Gorav Jindal and Corey Roush discuss antitrust developments in 2018 and look at what 2019 may bring.
Among the topics covered:
• antitrust under the Trump administration
• major...more
1/10/2019
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Best Practices ,
Big Data ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Risk Allocation ,
Sherman Act ,
The Clayton Act ,
Trump Administration ,
Vertical Mergers
• Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Makan Delrahim, the new head of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), recently announced a shift from the prior Administration’s focus on the dangers of patent “hold-up”...more
• The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published a Green Paper consulting on amendments to UK merger control and public interest intervention legislation to cover gaps in the current framework for...more
As part of the effort to rebrand the party and reconnect with working-class voters who were lost in the presidential election, congressional Democrats revealed a new populist policy agenda, titled “A Better Deal: Better Jobs,...more
9/18/2017
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
GAO ,
Job Creation ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Obama Administration ,
Political Parties ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour