The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Office of Policy Planning released an Interim Staff Report titled Pharmacy Benefit Managers: The Powerful Middlemen Inflating Drug Costs and Squeezing Main Street Pharmacies (the Interim...more
Last week, a federal judge in North Carolina declined to preliminarily enjoin Novant Health, Inc.’s (“Novant”) acquisition of two hospitals from Community Health Systems, Inc. (“CHS”). The FTC filed suit in federal court and...more
Over ten years ago, individuals and businesses insured by health plans that contract with Sutter Health filed a class action lawsuit against Sutter Health alleging antitrust violations under federal and California laws....more
Join Mintz Corporate and Securities Associate, Jason Miller, in a conversation with Margaret Yu, founder and CEO of Reliacare, and Andrew Gladue, founder and CEO of Plethys. Both are recent winners of Mintz Awards, an annual...more
As part of the Biden administration’s State of the Union blitz, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) convened a workshop on private equity (PE) investments in the health care industry on March 5, 2024. Immediately prior to the...more
On December 18, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (collectively, the “Agencies”) published the long-awaited final 2023 Merger Guidelines. The 2023 Merger Guidelines are informed...more
12/29/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Biden Administration ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Mergers ,
Private Equity ,
Request For Information ,
The Clayton Act ,
Transparency ,
Vertical Mergers
Since the beginning of Chair Khan’s tenure at the Federal Trade Commission (and in line with President Biden’s aim to curb rising health care costs), the current FTC has committed to bring enforcement actions against health...more
For years, the antitrust enforcement agencies have indicated their antipathy toward resolving competition issues in proposed mergers by entering into consent decrees that prohibit certain conduct, rather than stopping the...more
On July 19, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (collectively, the “Agencies”) published Draft Merger Guidelines. The Draft Merger Guidelines, if adopted, would replace both the...more
The Federal Trade Commission, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, recently released a summary of the Agencies’ June 2022 joint workshop titled “The Future of Pharmaceuticals: Examining the...more
The Federal Trade Commission continues to focus on labor-market competition issues with a set of settlements based on its newly asserted FTC Act Section 5 “stand alone” authority, and a highly controversial proposed...more
Congress passed the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022 (“Filing Fee Modernization Act”) on December 23, 2022 as part of a broader omnibus spending bill. It was signed into law by President Biden on December 29, 2022....more
The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) competition mission extends beyond enforcing the antitrust laws. It has the authority to study competition law and policy questions, issue reports, and advise state, local, and foreign...more
On July 25, 2022, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleging that poultry processors, Cargill Inc. and Cargill...more
8/3/2022
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Civil Conspiracy ,
Compensation ,
Consent Decrees ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Meat Processing Plants ,
Poultry ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sensitive Business Information ,
Sherman Act ,
Trade Associations ,
Wage and Hour
As has been expected, on January 18, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced in a joint press conference an initiative to review and revise the...more
The FTC and Antitrust Division held a workshop last week focused on labor issues, which superficially appears to be a continuation of the last Administration's policies. Since 2016 the agencies have warned the business...more
On December 6 and 7, 2021, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) hosted a virtual workshop to discuss competition issues in labor markets and plans to execute President...more
12/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Competition ,
Compliance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Mergers ,
OSHA ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Wages
On Tuesday, November 2, 2021, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to block an acquisition by Penguin Random House,...more
Last week was momentous for the Federal Trade Commission. First, the campaign use antitrust to reign in “Big Tech” faced a setback as the United States District Court for District of Columbia dismissed the FTC’s suit against...more
7/13/2021
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Big Tech ,
Competition ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Google ,
Instagram ,
Monopolization ,
Sherman Act ,
Social Media ,
WhatsApp
In a joint press release, the FTC and Antitrust Division announced they are launching a review of the Merger Guidelines so the agencies "review mergers with the skepticism the law demands" in order to "determine if they are...more
On July 9th, President Biden issued a broad-based Executive Order “to promote competition in the American economy.” In the White House’s own words...more
Antitrust reform advocate Lina Khan was designated as Chair of the FTC last week, a few minutes after her confirmation vote. She was confirmed on a bipartisan Senate vote although President Biden's plan to name her the agency...more
On June 11, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) administrative order against 1-800 Contacts, Inc. The Second Circuit found that the online retailer’s trademark...more
On Tuesday, May 11, 2021, an international coalition of competition enforcement agencies including the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, Offices of State Attorneys General,...more
Back in December, we wrote about a district court ruling rejecting the Federal Trade Comission’s (“FTC”) motion to enjoin the proposed combination of Thomas Jefferson University (“TJU”) and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network...more