On February 13, 2026, our prior alert reported that a judge in the Eastern District of Texas vacated the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Final Rule promulgating the new Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) form, which went into effect...more
On February 12, 2026, a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas vacated the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) final rule promulgating a new Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act premerger notification form (Final Rule). The FTC...more
The California Law Revision Commission (the Commission) recently released draft legislative changes that could make California’s Cartwright Act a bigger force in government and private antitrust enforcement. ...more
On January 14, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced revised thresholds for merger notifications under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The new thresholds and fee schedule will be effective February 17, 2026,...more
In a notable departure from past practice, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit in federal district court on December 15, 2025, to permanently enjoin Henkel AG & Co. KGaA and its subsidiaries (Henkel) from acquiring...more
1/9/2026
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Competition ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Subsidiaries
Recent developments have made navigating multinational antitrust merger reviews even more complex and replete with traps for the unwary. ...more
7/8/2025
/ Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
China ,
Competition Authorities ,
Enforcement Authority ,
EU ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Geopolitical Risks ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
International Trade ,
Member State ,
Merger Controls ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
Multinationals ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
After President Trump’s election for a second term, those predicting where federal antitrust enforcement was headed had to contend with internal tensions in the Trump coalition that extend to economic policy more broadly:...more
On April 4, 2025, Washington became the first state to enact the Uniform Antitrust Premerger Notification Act (Model Act), requiring parties to certain notifiable transactions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust...more
Since their release, the federal antitrust agencies’ 2023 Merger Guidelines (2023 Guidelines) have faced significant criticism from many. There was speculation that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice...more
This year’s M&A Report offers a detailed review of the M&A market and outlook, including a breakdown by various geographies and industry sectors. We examine what might be in store with antitrust and CFIUS under the Trump...more
2/13/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
CFIUS ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Defense Strategies ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Information Reports ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Merger Controls ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Private Equity ,
Purchase Price ,
Purchase Price Adjustment ,
Venture Capital
With every change in administration, businesses and practitioners wonder what the new administration will mean for antitrust enforcement in the United States. Speculation was at fever pitch four years ago, after Democratic...more
2/13/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Biden Administration ,
Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Trump Administration
On January 10, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced adjusted thresholds for merger notifications under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. Effective 30 days after the official publication date of the adjusted...more
1/16/2025
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Requirements ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Jurisdictional Thresholds ,
Mergers ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements
Three crude oil producers have agreed to pay civil penalties totaling $5.7 million to settle allegations that they engaged in “gun jumping,” namely, allowing the acquirer to exercise control over the target’s business conduct...more
1/14/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Competition ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Oil & Gas
For the first time in over 45 years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted on October 10, 2024, extensive changes to the notification form for acquisitions subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) review. The new form...more
In a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has limited the European Commission’s (EC) ability to review mergers that fall outside thresholds at the EC level and in the Member States seeking to refer the...more
9/6/2024
/ Competition Authorities ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Jurisdiction ,
Jurisdictional Thresholds ,
Member State ,
Merger Controls ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
Threshold Requirements
In an eagerly awaited decision, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas Ada Brown issued yesterday a nationwide injunction striking down the Federal Trade Commission’s Noncompete Clause Rule,...more
On July 23, the European Commission, US Department of Justice, US Federal Trade Commission, and UK Competition and Markets Authority released a joint statement setting out shared principles on competition in markets that...more
7/26/2024
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Competition ,
Data Collection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Innovative Technology ,
Joint Policy Statements ,
Machine Learning ,
Personal Data ,
Technology Sector ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in a highly anticipated vote, passed the Non-Compete Clause Rule, 16 CFR § 910 (the Rule), which purports to bar all non-competes in the United States, subject to limited...more
4/26/2024
/ Chamber of Commerce ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Highly Compensated Employees ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Competition
The healthcare industry remains a focal point of President Biden’s antitrust agenda. The president’s July 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy called on federal agencies to focus antitrust...more
While the 2022 M&A market was buoyed by deal carryover from 2021 and more conducive market conditions in the first half of the year, the 2023 M&A market felt the impact of the Federal Reserve’s most aggressive interest rate...more
3/22/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Capital Markets ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Financial Markets ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Mergers ,
Safe Harbors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Takeovers ,
Venture Capital
Parties contemplating transactions in the defense sector need to know about a new obligation to provide materials to the Department of Defense (DOD) that will substantially affect their obligations for transactions that are...more
2/8/2024
/ Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
GAO ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
NDAA
On January 22, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced revised thresholds for merger notifications under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. Effective 30 days after the official publication date in the Federal...more
On December 18, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice jointly released their final Merger Guidelines. The Guidelines “identify the procedures and enforcement practices [the agencies] most often use...more
Under their current leadership, the U.S. federal antitrust agencies have shown antipathy to resolving merger investigations through remedy undertaking that are embodied in consent decrees, preferring instead to seek to...more
On July 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice released a draft update of the Merger Guidelines. The draft Guidelines describe how the agencies “review...mergers and acquisitions to determine...more
7/21/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Comment Period ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Guidance Update ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Merger Reviews ,
Mergers ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Vertical Mergers