Welcome to this week's issue of AI: The Washington Report, a joint undertaking of Mintz and its government affairs affiliate, ML Strategies. This week, we discuss the Senate Judiciary Committee’s December 13, 2023 hearing...more
12/20/2023
/ Algorithms ,
Amicus Briefs ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Data Collection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sherman Act ,
Summary of Consumer Rights
For years, the antitrust enforcement agencies have indicated their antipathy toward resolving competition issues in proposed mergers by entering into consent decrees that prohibit certain conduct, rather than stopping the...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”), and the new proposed merger guidelines have all called out private equity transactions for particular scrutiny. The FTC just...more
8/22/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Consent Order ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Divestment ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Private Equity Firms ,
Section 8 ,
Settlement ,
The Clayton Act ,
Unfair Competition
On July 19, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (collectively, the “Agencies”) published Draft Merger Guidelines. The Draft Merger Guidelines, if adopted, would replace both the...more
On Monday, the FTC lost its bid to preliminarily enjoin Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, the maker of the popular video game, “Call of Duty.” Based on a vertical foreclosure theory, this case marks the fourth loss for...more
The Federal Trade Commission, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, recently released a summary of the Agencies’ June 2022 joint workshop titled “The Future of Pharmaceuticals: Examining the...more
On March 16, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ Antitrust Division”) announced that a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a former health care staffing executive of fixing wages for nurses....more
Congress passed the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022 (“Filing Fee Modernization Act”) on December 23, 2022 as part of a broader omnibus spending bill. It was signed into law by President Biden on December 29, 2022....more
On July 25, 2022, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleging that poultry processors, Cargill Inc. and Cargill...more
8/3/2022
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Civil Conspiracy ,
Compensation ,
Consent Decrees ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Meat Processing Plants ,
Poultry ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sensitive Business Information ,
Sherman Act ,
Trade Associations ,
Wage and Hour
In remarks given last week at the 2022 International Competition Network Conference in Berlin, Germany, FTC Chair Lina Khan gave a keynote address in which she described the “broad and sweeping reassessment” of United States...more
The closely watched government campaign to criminally prosecute labor-related antitrust matters has run into a major roadblock—juries.
Last week, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) was...more
As a part of the new initiative to revise the antitrust merger guidelines, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) announced on March 17, 2022 that the agencies will host...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published today in the Federal Register increased jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR...more
As has been expected, on January 18, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced in a joint press conference an initiative to review and revise the...more
The Federal Trade Commission is closing out the year with vigorous enforcement of the Hart Scott Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“HSR Act”) by imposing fines totaling nearly $2 million. On December 22, 2021, the...more
The DOJ is requesting public comment on a new draft policy concerning licensing negotiations and remedies for standards-essential patents (SEPs) subject to voluntary F/RAND commitments recently jointly issued by the U.S....more
On December 6 and 7, 2021, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) hosted a virtual workshop to discuss competition issues in labor markets and plans to execute President...more
12/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Competition ,
Compliance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Mergers ,
OSHA ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Wages
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) just announced that they will host a virtual workshop on December 6 and 7, 2021, to discuss the agencies’ efforts to promote...more
A blog post from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) on Tuesday was the latest announcement suggesting that a shake-up is underway for the agency’s merger review process. The post stated that the FTC’s Bureau of Competition...more
On Tuesday, September 21, 2021, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the state attorneys general of Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and...more
On July 9th, President Biden issued a broad-based Executive Order “to promote competition in the American economy.” In the White House’s own words...more
Earlier this week, Stone Canyon Industry Holdings LLC (“Stone Canyon”) and its portfolio company SCIH Salt Holdings Inc. (“SCIH”) reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to resolve its...more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced yesterday a criminal indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Las Vegas, Nevada charging a health care staffing company and its former manager of entering into and engaging in...more
4/2/2021
/ Antitrust Conspiracies ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Indictments ,
No-Poaching ,
Sherman Act ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Wage-Fixing
Last week, Geisinger Health (“Geisinger”) and Evangelical Community Hospital (“Evangelical”) reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), resolving the DOJ’s ongoing litigation challenging...more
On February 18, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the divestiture order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in a private merger challenge brought by...more