APRIL – JUNE 2021: HIGHLIGHTS -

UNITED STATES -

- The premerger notification landscape continues to shift as filings reach another record high, and the US Congress contemplates increases to filing fees and New York State contemplates its own premerger notification regime.

- Technology companies remain in the “hot seat” as legislators in the US House of Representatives (House) introduced five antitrust reform bills that would change the enforcement landscape for digital platforms, including seeking to preclude large digital platform companies from acquiring smaller, nascent competitors.

- Aggressive antitrust enforcement is likely to continue with the appointment of Lina Khan as Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair and the nomination of Jonathan Kanter to lead the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division. This appointment reemphasizes the Biden administration’s commitment to more stringent antitrust regulation just as Congress appears to be close to increasing the budgets of both the FTC and DOJ.

- The DOJ is making good on President Biden’s pledge to regulate “Big Ag” by challenging Zen-Noh Grain Corporation’s proposed acquisition of 38 grain elevators from Bunge North America, Inc.