UNITED STATES -

Proposed Merger Guidelines Outline Fundamental Change of Approach to Merger Investigation and Enforcement -

On July 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released new proposed merger guidelines. The agencies have requested comments on these new guidelines and will work to finalize them in the coming months. The proposed guidelines detail how the agencies will evaluate horizontal (transactions with competitors), vertical (transactions integrating firms up/down a supply chain) and other transactions. When finalized, the proposed guidelines will replace the current 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the short-lived 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines, which the FTC withdrew in September 2021.