Fierce Competition Podcast | Private Equity Under the Antitrust Microscope
The Latest on Antitrust Compliance
On December 10, 2024, President-elect Trump named FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson as next Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), replacing Chair Lina Khan on January 20, 2025. As a Senate-approved sitting...more
President-elect Trump will act quickly to replace Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and roll back certain Biden-era antitrust initiatives. The new administration is likely to bring a more favorable merger review...more
At the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) open meeting this month, agency staff and commissioners discussed the recently launched " Merger Portal." The portal is available on the FTC's website and provides the public with an...more
On October 24, 2024, to the surprise of many legal observers and fashion industry executives, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) secured a preliminary injunction blocking a proposed $8.5 billion deal between Tapestry and...more
Our Antitrust Team reviews how the European Commission is using the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) and, for the first time, performed an in-depth investigation into whether the acquirer of a company with activities in the...more
The Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) has published new guidance for UK employers on how to avoid anti-competitive behaviour. The aim of this is to ensure staff are paid fairly for their work and can opt to move...more
Antitrust is in the news. Old cartoons showing octopus-monopolist tentacles destroying Washington are no longer just for American history textbooks. Lina Khan—who rose to prominence with an article attacking the Chicago...more
The Hungarian Parliament has recently adopted an amendment to the Hungarian Competition Act, in Act LV of 2022, which will enter into force on 1 January 2023 (the “Amendment”).The changes include increased general turnover...more
United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and United States Representative Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) on March 16, 2022 introduced the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act (the “Act”) to ban what they’ve called “the...more
The EC recently found that Hungary's veto of Vienna Insurance Group's ("VIG") acquisition of the Hungarian subsidiaries of the AEGON Group, an insurance, pension fund, and asset management company, breached EU merger control...more
For the second time, our antitrust/competition practice has expanded the Dechert Antitrust Merger Investigation Timing Tracker (DAMITT) to include Germany and France. This supplements DAMITT’s U.S. and EU coverage with...more
Effective October 25, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has adopted a new policy providing increased scrutiny of merger and acquisition activity for potential anti-competitive effects. The new policy applies to consent...more
Antitrust remains a hot topic in the media, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in particular has garnered significant coverage due to a series of recent public announcements. While change has become the new normal at the...more
Change is the only constant of late at the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). Newly confirmed Chair Lina Khan has wasted no time in using her three-Democrat majority to overhaul the Commission’s merger enforcement practices. ...more
On 22 December 2020, on a divided vote, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or the Commission) issued a Commentary on Vertical Merger Enforcement (FTC Commentary) to provide “greater transparency to the public regarding its...more
BCLP’s global Antitrust & Competition team have been tracking the various ways COVID-19 is impacting antitrust enforcement, merger control, state aid and foreign direct investment rules ("FDI") in key jurisdictions around the...more
Last month, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a law repealing a provision of the Colorado Antitrust Act that prohibited challenging a merger under state law where the federal antitrust agencies did not also challenge the...more
The new Competition Law (the "Competition Law") of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the "Kingdom") was enacted by Royal Decree M/75 on 29/06/1440 Hijri (corresponding to 6 March 2019) and came into force on 24/01/1441 Hijri...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) have extended the deadline for public comments on the draft vertical merger guidelines (the Guidelines), which were published jointly by the agencies on 10...more
On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released joint draft Vertical Merger Guidelines (“Guidelines”) for public comment. This much anticipated...more
On January 10, 2020 the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released draft guidelines outlining the agencies' "analytical techniques, practices, and enforcement policy" for...more
On Friday, 10 January 2020 the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (collectively, the agencies) announced the publication of draft vertical merger guidelines that describe how the agencies currently...more
In an era of robust merger enforcement by the U.S. antitrust agencies, opportunities abound for private equity firms to acquire divested businesses for value. These acquisitions of divested businesses are increasingly subject...more