Look before you leap. That is good advice for many things in life, including entering into a risky antitrust transaction. Given the aggressiveness of the antitrust agencies in reviewing deals and the HSR pre-merger process, it may be wise to analyze how an investigating...
Antitrust complaints are infamous for their complexity. Can you really call a hundred-page pleading a “short and plain statement”? But Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombley was after all an antitrust case. If you are answering an antitrust complaint or even...
The Robinson-Patman Act (RP)—which prohibits certain forms of price discrimination—has been the odd man of the antitrust laws for decades. Since the 1980s, antitrust has focused on consumer welfare and competition, rather than protecting the “little...
On February 10, 2025, the revised HSR Rule went into effect after the statutory 90-day Federal Register publication waiting period lapsed. All HSR filings will now have to conform to the revised Rule. The revised Rule is widely seen to increase filing requirements...
While the antitrust policy priorities of the new Administration continue to be developed, one possible result of the election may be increased activity by state attorneys general (AGs). Antitrust enforcement is a shared enterprise. The Department of Justice and...
This November, now President-elect Donald Trump won a decisive electoral victory. Republicans also gained control of both chambers of Congress. As one of many results, sweeping changes in policy, priorities, and personnel are likely coming for antitrust enforcement...
On October 10, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its Final HSR Rule, which substantially overhauls the HSR filing requirements and represents the most significant changes to the HSR filing regime since the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) was enacted over...
The third rail of antitrust has always been price setting. Price fixing is the classic per se, illegal antitrust violation. The current Administration’s antitrust enforcers have broader ambitions, however. They are investigating—and bringing enforcement...
In a closely followed case that parallels the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) 1990s Microsoft antitrust victory, a D.C. district court has ruled that Google is a monopolist and has maintained its monopoly positions through anticompetitive means—exclusive...
Court action related to a recently abandoned hospital merger deal sought by Novant Health/Lake Norman and Davis Hospitals demonstrates the current FTC’s hostility to concentration-increasing mergers and the “failing firm” defense as spelled out...
On April 23, 2024, the FTC, by a 3-2 vote, issued its controversial, long-awaited final rule banning nearly all non-competes that would have significant impact: nearly one in five Americans are subject to a non-compete. But the ban’s effect will likely be...
With Republican commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson joining the FTC in March, the Commission has GOP input for the first time in nearly a year. On April 22, the now-full-strength FTC voted unanimously to challenge a merger between “accessible...
Antitrust attorneys advising on transactions with global reach often need to determine where to file merger control notifications around the world. Practical Guidance’s Multi-jurisdictional Merger Control (Jurisdiction) and Multi-jurisdictional Merger Control...
FTC Chair Lina Khan told a conference of the American Medical Association on February 14, 2024, that the healthcare market is under the microscope in the Commission’s push for greater competition across the economy. Recent efforts by the FTC in this space...
On January 16, 2024, a federal district court in Massachusetts prevented JetBlue from acquiring Spirit Airlines. The court focused on JetBlue’s roots as a maverick, low-cost carrier which provides innovation and downward pressure on prices and how the proposed...