On July 14, 2023, signaling a continuing shift in its position on antitrust issues, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) followed the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and withdrew the Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy...more
The American Hospital Association (AHA), on behalf of its nearly 5,000 members and clinician partners, recently responded to the federal antitrust agencies’ request for comments to help inform the agencies’ efforts to...more
As part of their initiative to reevaluate both the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines (collectively, “Merger Guidelines”), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of...more
The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division announced last week that they are soliciting public comments on ways to “modernize federal merger guidelines” to assist the agencies in...more
On September 15, 2021, by a 3-2 vote, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) decided to withdraw the vertical merger guidelines that had been issued in 2020. In its statement supporting the withdrawal, the majority raised...more
On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy (the “EO”). The EO casts a wide net, encompassing many industries, including health care....more
Divestiture has long been considered an appropriate and effective remedy for anticompetitive horizontal mergers. The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), as reflected in the Statement of the Bureau of Competition entitled...more
On September 3, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) updated its Merger Remedies Manual (“the Manual”). This is the first update of the Manual since 2011, and it reinforces DOJ’s commitment to effective structural...more
When released in draft form for public comment on January 10, 2020, the Vertical Merger Guidelines (“Vertical Guidelines”) included a safety zone indicating that “the Agencies [i.e., the U.S. Department of Justice and the...more
On June 30, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released final Vertical Merger Guidelines. As noted previously, the agencies had issued draft guidelines that were subject to...more
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (collectively, “Agencies”) recently released for public comment their much-anticipated draft Vertical Merger Guidelines (“Guidelines”) that purport to “outline...more
1/30/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Comment Period ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Draft Guidance ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Horizontal Merger Guidelines ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Vertical Mergers
In our last Antitrust Byte, we brought to your attention Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter’s support for retrospective reviews of vertical transactions. Not to be overlooked, however, is Chairman...more
While federal officials have stated their intent to persist in questioning vertical relationships that they hypothesize cause downstream economic effects on product flow and prices, a recent loss by the Department of Justice...more
7/3/2018
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
AT&T ,
Cable Television Providers ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Health Insurance ,
Insurance Industry ,
Merger Agreements ,
Mergers ,
The Clayton Act ,
Time Warner ,
Vertical Mergers
Recent decisions outside of the health care industry—including the defeated efforts (at least at the district court level) to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner and the recent decision from the Second Circuit upholding...more