During the course of the Biden Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have demonstrated an invigorated and sustained policy interest in increasing competition across various...more
2/7/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Biden Administration ,
Competition ,
Corporate Practice of Medicine ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Mergers ,
Policy Statement ,
Trade Associations
The Biden Administration's aggressive antitrust enforcers have trained their sights on private equity companies. They have signaled through enforcement activities, formal policy statements and informal interviews and speeches...more
1/19/2023
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Biden Administration ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Divestiture ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Private Equity ,
Private Equity Firms ,
Public Policy ,
The Clayton Act ,
Veterinarians
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) held the final installment of their "listening tour" on May 12, 2022, focused on the firsthand effects of mergers and...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) held another installment of their "listening tour" on April 27, 2022,1 with a focus during this session on the media and...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) continued their online listening tour on April 14, 2022, with a discussion regarding the effects of mergers and acquisitions on the healthcare industry...more
4/20/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Corporate Practice of Medicine ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospital Mergers ,
Industry Consolidation ,
Mergers ,
Vertical Integration
Federal antitrust enforcement in the agricultural industry had been little more than a whisper for decades. The Obama Administration announced it was making agricultural antitrust enforcement a priority and then held...more
On November 5, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a message to which everyone in the government contracting, federal grant and program funding worlds should pay attention to by announcing the creation of a "Procurement...more
11/13/2019
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Bid Rigging ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DOJ Strike Force ,
FBI ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Funding ,
Federal Procurement Systems ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
Strategic Enforcement Plan
Five years after the U.S. Supreme Court found in FTC v. Actavis, 570 U.S. 136 (2013), that large and unjustified payments from a brand pharmaceutical manufacturer to prevent generic entry can provide a basis for an antitrust...more
The DOJ's Antitrust Division sent a powerful message to the business community yesterday when it sued railroad equipment suppliers Knorr-Bremse AG and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (Wabtec) for entering into...more
4/4/2018
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Consent Decrees ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
No-Poaching ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements
In January 2017, Holland & Knight Transportation & Infrastructure lawyers and senior advisors prepared 20 posts for the 20 days leading to President Donald Trump's inauguration regarding what to expect from the Trump...more
2/5/2018
/ Aviation Industry ,
Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Coal Industry ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FMCSA ,
Independent Contractors ,
Infrastructure ,
Joint Employers ,
Logging ,
Mexico ,
Mining ,
Motor Carriers ,
NAFTA ,
NHTSA ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Private Partnerships (P3s) ,
Railroads ,
TIFIA ,
Transportation Industry ,
Trucking Industry ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage and Hour ,
WIFIA
As post-Actavis antitrust litigation over so-called “reverse payment” patent settlements proceeds, courts continue to provide further illumination about what evidence a private plaintiff would need to offer to survive summary...more
2/1/2018
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Causation ,
Claim Construction ,
Damages ,
Generic Drugs ,
Manufacturers ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Preponderance of the Evidence ,
Reverse Payment Settlement Agreements ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Summary Judgment
Shortly after the arrival last fall of Makan Delrahim as head of the DOJ's Antitrust Division, the DOJ quietly introduced a subtle but significant change to the consent decrees it uses to settle antitrust disputes. This...more
We pointed out in a recent article that, based on recent decisions by the Courts of Appeals for the First and Third Circuits, private antitrust plaintiffs seeking damages from so-called “reverse-payment” settlement agreements...more
11/8/2017
/ Anticompetitive Agreements ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Appeals ,
Claim Construction ,
Damages ,
Generic Drugs ,
Manufacturers ,
Motion for Summary Judgment ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Preponderance of the Evidence ,
Reverse Payment Settlement Agreements
As the trend of acquisitions of physician practices and mergers of hospitals continues, so does antitrust scrutiny of these deals. There was activity this week in three different proposed transactions that caught the...more
11/3/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Immunity ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Blue Cross ,
Competition ,
Cooperation Agreement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Costs ,
Hospital Mergers ,
Hospitals ,
Physicians ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sherman Act
In January 2017, Holland & Knight Transportation & Infrastructure lawyers and senior advisors prepared 20 posts for the 20 days leading to President Donald Trump's inauguration regarding what to expect from the Trump...more
5/2/2017
/ Antitrust Investigations ,
Coal ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) ,
FMCSA ,
Independent Contractors ,
Infrastructure ,
Maritime Transport ,
Mexico ,
Motor Carriers ,
NAFTA ,
NHTSA ,
Railroads ,
Safety Standards ,
Transportation Industry ,
Trump Administration
After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on Oct. 31, 2016, that the district court's refusal to enjoin the merger of two hospital systems in Chicago's northern suburbs was based on an improper antitrust...more
As the Obama Administration drew to a close, its antitrust enforcers took two actions of note for those involved in intellectual property (IP) licensing. The first, the joint release by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)...more
1/25/2017
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Copyright ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Licensing Rules ,
Obama Administration ,
Patents ,
Qualcomm ,
Standard Essential Patents ,
Technology ,
Technology Sector ,
Trade Secrets
Holland & Knight alerted the maritime community in November 2016 that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit appeared likely to affirm the dismissal of private antitrust claims brought against roll-on, roll-off...more
1/24/2017
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Common Carriers ,
Damages ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Maritime Commission ,
Immunity ,
Price-Fixing ,
Shipping ,
Shipping Cargo ,
Vessels
The Obama Administration has made enforcement of the antitrust laws a priority and has aggressively pursued criminal and civil enforcement actions against large corporations for perceived antitrust violations relating to...more
In 1942, economist Joseph Schumpeter observed that the "creative destruction" of innovation often drives economic growth in market economies as companies continuously introduce new products or services, or new ways to produce...more
The Shipping Act of 1984 grants limited immunity under the antitrust laws to vessel-operating common carriers that enter certain agreements, including price-fixing agreements, so long as the agreements are filed in advance...more
11/28/2016
/ Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Common Carriers ,
Competition ,
Damages ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Maritime Commission ,
Maritime Transport ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sherman Act ,
Shipping ,
Shipping Cargo ,
The Clayton Act ,
Vessels
The fall of 2016 has proved to be a difficult time for hospitals seeking to complete mergers in the face of antitrust challenges brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). After failing initially to persuade federal...more
The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Oct. 20, 2016, jointly released Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals, cautioning employers about...more
10/28/2016
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Job Applicants ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Recruitment Policies ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Sherman Act