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
2024 is shaping up to be a year of significant change in Brussels. European Parliamentary elections in June will be followed by the appointment of a new Commission in the autumn....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 draft guidelines for applying US antitrust laws to merger investigations depart from prior guidance and seek to roll back decades of legal precedent on merger enforcement. Competitive effects analyses are out;...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
The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) in-house administrative law judge (ALJ) has handed the FTC a loss in its suit to reverse the completed acquisition of GRAIL, Inc. by Illumina, Inc. This is the FTC's second high-profile...more
On Sept. 13, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter delivered remarks at the Georgetown Antitrust Law Symposium, largely focusing on merger control enforcement at the Department of Justice (DOJ) under his...more
In March of this year the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) jointly announced a series of “listening forums” that would help gather real world input from...more
The Comisión Federal de Competencia's new guidelines clarify notification requirements for joint ventures and the "failing firm" defense. Newly revised merger control guidelines ("Guidelines") from the Comisión Federal de...more
On September 3, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) updated its Merger Remedies Manual (“the Manual”). This is the first update of the Manual since 2011, and it reinforces DOJ’s commitment to effective structural...more
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (the Agencies) issued new guidelines governing for vertical mergers and acquisitions. The Guidelines replace and supersede the DOJ's...more
The EU General Court ruled that the Commission must demonstrate with a "strong probability" that the effect on competition is "significant" to block a merger that does not create a dominant company. In a rare judgment, the...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on February 27 that it has filed an administrative complaint challenging the proposed merger of Jefferson Health (Jefferson) and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (Einstein), two...more
As anticipated, on January 10, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (collectively, the Agencies) released Draft Vertical Merger Guidelines (Draft Guidelines), marking the first update...more
Perhaps this is an indication of the way things are going to be after Brexit. The Governments of Germany, France and Poland have recently published a document calling for a radical review of the EU merger rules to allow a...more
In this episode, Akin Gump antitrust partners Gorav Jindal and Corey Roush discuss antitrust developments in 2018 and look at what 2019 may bring. Among the topics covered: • antitrust under the Trump administration • major...more
Antitrust merger enforcement historically has focused on horizontal mergers — consolidation of two firms that compete directly in the same space. This is especially true in the U.S., where antitrust authorities have...more