On December 12, 2024, following a nearly two-year-long investigation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated its first litigation under the Robinson-Patman Act (RPA) in more than two decades. The FTC sued Southern...more
The American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section’s annual Spring Meeting is underway in Washington, DC. The annual Spring Meeting features updates from federal, state and international antitrust enforcers and extensive...more
4/12/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
American Bar Association (ABA) ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Buyers ,
Corporate Governance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Healthcare ,
Mergers ,
Popular ,
Private Equity ,
Proposed Rules ,
Remedies ,
Section 8
Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. (Google) moved to dismiss a third successive complaint that alleged it tied the sales of Maps, Routes and Places application programming interface (API) services to one another. A basic tying...more
2/29/2024
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Application Programming Interface (APIs) ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Google Maps ,
Licensing Rules ,
Monopolization ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Service Agreements ,
Terms of Service
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) are updating their standard preservation notices and instructions for responding to all manner of discovery (e.g., second requests, voluntary access...more
A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned an executive’s bid-rigging antitrust conviction, holding that the district court erred in applying the per se standard to the executive’s...more
1/10/2024
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Bid Rigging ,
Bids ,
Collaboration ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Competition ,
Convictions ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Per Se Rule ,
Price-Fixing ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
Sherman Act
Mergers and acquisitions will continue to face strong headwinds at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under new proposed Merger Guidelines released on July 19, 2023.
The Proposed...more
7/25/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
Proposed Guidance ,
Supply Chain ,
Vertical Mergers
The Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division have released their revised Merger Guidelines. Which industries will be most affected? What should companies be doing now to avoid regulatory...more
The American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section held its annual Spring Meeting in Washington, DC, on March 29–31, 2023. The Spring Meeting sessions featured updates from federal, state, and international antitrust...more
4/6/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
American Bar Association (ABA) ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
CFIUS ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Healthcare ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Mergers ,
National Security ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Section 8 ,
The Clayton Act
The American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section recently held its annual Spring Meeting in Washington, DC, featuring updates from federal, state, and international antitrust enforcers and in-depth commentary on leading...more
4/4/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
American Bar Association (ABA) ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Community to Purchase Act (COPA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
Joe Biden ,
Mergers ,
Private Equity ,
Robinson-Patman Act ,
Sherman Act ,
Spoliation
On February 3, 2023, the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division announced the withdrawal of three policy statements related to antitrust enforcement in healthcare. Although the withdrawn statements focus on...more
WHAT HAPPENED -
• Seven directors resigned from corporate boards following promises of enforcement of Clayton Act Section 8 (15 U.S.C. § 19) by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Antitrust Division (the Division), the...more
10/24/2022
/ Administrative Resignation ,
Antitrust Division ,
Board of Directors ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Private Equity ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Section 8 ,
The Clayton Act
WHAT HAPPENED -
During a conference last week, Ryan Danks, Director of Civil Enforcement at the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ), suggested that merging parties—not the antitrust enforcement...more
US antitrust enforcers have signaled that private equity firms are the prime targets for upcoming aggressive antitrust merger enforcement. In a recent interview, US Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter stated that the...more
In remarks delivered on January 18, 2022, and January 24, 2022, Jonathan Kanter, the Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division, laid out the areas where he perceives...more
3/15/2022
/ Antitrust Division ,
Bid Rigging ,
Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Joe Biden ,
Mergers ,
Monopolization ,
Procurement Collusion Strike Force ,
Sherman Act ,
The Clayton Act
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday released decreased thresholds for the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR). The thresholds are indexed to changes in the gross national product (GNP). They...more
With COVID-19-related closures rolling in daily, you may have questions about the operating status of the federal government’s antitrust enforcement agencies. Currently, the HSR review process does not seem to be...more
The US Federal Trade Commission today announced increased thresholds for the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and for determining whether parties trigger the prohibition against interlocking directors...more
1/29/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
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
WHAT HAPPENED:
• On September 4, 2019, the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) sued to block Novelis Inc.’s proposed $2.6 billion acquisition of Aleris Corporation.
• DOJ alleged that the transaction would...more
10/14/2019
/ ABS ,
Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitrators ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Divestiture ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Mergers
The US Federal Trade Commission recently announced increased thresholds for the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and for determining whether parties trigger the prohibition against interlocking directors...more
2/19/2019
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Filing Requirements ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Section 8 ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) submitted comments supporting the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) guidance for assessing whether a pharmaceutical company petitioner is misusing the citizen petition process to delay...more
WHAT HAPPENED -
.. The FTC posted a short article indicating that after finalizing a settlement package with FTC Staff, it takes approximately four weeks for the Directors of the Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of...more
WHAT HAPPENED -
• The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently investigating whether advertising sales teams for competing television station owners...more
According to press reports, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating several issues related to admission of students to institutions of higher learning....more
Dealmakers know that a critical part of the merger process is obtaining antitrust clearance from government enforcers. But, even if the antitrust enforcers review and clear a transaction, a third-party can file a private suit...more
WHAT HAPPENED -
On February 14, 2017, Integra agreed to purchase Johnson & Johnson’s Codman neurosurgery business (excluding Codman’s neurovascular and drug deliver businesses) for $1.045 billion....
...more