With President Joe Biden's departure, aggressive antitrust enforcers at the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hand over the reins to incoming Trump...more
In an interesting political twist, the difference in approaches to antitrust enforcement between Democrat and Republican Administrations has been narrowing. It used to be that the difference in party control of the Antitrust...more
Antitrust issues have cut deeply into the corporate landscape, and this year is shaping up for more of the same. Generative artificial intelligence, merger enforcement, and trial risks stand out as three of the most important...more
On December 18, 2023, The Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice concluded a nearly two-year process of updating both the horizontal and vertical merger guidelines with the release of the...more
In prior posts, we discussed the draft, updated merger guidelines that had been issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice (sometimes referred to as the “Agencies”) in July of last year. At that...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
On December 18, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice (the “Agencies”) jointly released new Merger Guidelines (the “Guidelines”), setting forth the analytical framework the Agencies will use to...more
It has been two years since President Biden signed a far-reaching, industry-spanning Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy. The Executive Order outlined a “whole-of-government” approach to...more
Antitrust enforcers remained active across the globe, with the announcement by the FTC and DOJ of proposed guidelines that have an emphasis on tech mergers in the United States, and several investigations of major tech deals...more
In Short - The Development: The Court of Justice of the European Union ("ECJ") annulled a General Court ("GC") ruling that had adopted a high standard of proof for the European Commission ("EC") to block transactions in...more
The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice recently proposed drafts of new Merger Guidelines for their review and approval of mergers and acquisitions, with the intent of responding to the realities of the modern...more
On June 1, 2023, the European Commission (EC) adopted revised Horizontal Guidelines (HGs) and two updated block exemption regulations (BERs) on research and development (R&D) and “specialisation” agreements. These materials...more
The U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (DOJ), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (and together, the “Agencies”) have released long-anticipated draft merger guidelines (the “2023 Draft Guidelines”) that...more
On July 19, 2023, the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission released draft revised merger guidelines in an effort to support the Biden administration’s aggressive antitrust enforcement agenda....more
On July 19, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) (collectively, the Agencies) released the long-anticipated updated draft Merger Guidelines1 (the Guidelines) for a...more
On July 18, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released draft updates to their merger guidelines that reflect considerable shifts in how the DOJ and FTC review horizontal and...more
After months of delays, on 19 July 2023, the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission (collectively, the Agencies) released for public comment a draft update of their Merger...more
On July 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) (each an Agency, and collectively, the Agencies) released a long-awaited draft version of revised Merger...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
On July 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (together, the “Agencies”) announced new draft Merger Guidelines (“Draft Guidelines”), which detail the analysis the Agencies will...more
Today the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice released a proposed set of new Horizontal Merger Guidelines, to replace the current version adopted in 2010. The proposed Guidelines...more
Health care companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to create innovations, set prices, and compete with rivals. At the same time, federal and state antitrust enforcers are finding new ways to apply...more
UNITED STATES - Wilson Resigns as FTC Commissioner - On February 14, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) lone Republican commissioner, Christine Wilson, announced that she was resigning. Wilson explained her decision...more
2022 saw a major uptick in antitrust scrutiny and enforcement, primarily related to vertical transactions by large technology companies. Meta/Within, Microsoft/Activision, and Broadcom/VMware (among others) faced resistance...more
On 3 February 2023 the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it is withdrawing from certain policy statements related to antitrust enforcement in healthcare. Specifically, DOJ is withdrawing “safe harbors” for...more