On November 9, 2021, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Christine Wilson addressed the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section’s 2021 Fall Forum. Her prepared comments, entitled “The Neo-Brandeisian...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reimplemented a policy of requiring all merger enforcement orders to include the requirement that acquisitive firms obtain prior approval from the FTC before closing any future...more
On September 28, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a blog post announcing several changes to how the FTC will investigate mergers and acquisitions and how it will approach second-request negotiations. The blog...more
Chair Khan’s Priorities -
In a memo dated September 22, 2021, the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Lina Khan, described for the FTC Staff and fellow Commissioners what she described as her “vision and...more
On September 15, 2021, by a 3-2 vote, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) decided to withdraw the vertical merger guidelines that had been issued in 2020. In its statement supporting the withdrawal, the majority raised...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently released a policy statement addressing repair restrictions imposed by manufacturers and sellers (“Policy Statement”). The Policy Statement was the result of an FTC workshop...more
A Surge of HSR Filings -
On August 3, 2021, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) authored a blog post discussing the tsunami of Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) filings that the...more
Prior to 1995, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) required parties to a Commission Order entered in a merger case to obtain the FTC’s prior approval for any future transaction in similar markets above a de minimis...more
On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy (the “EO”). The EO casts a wide net, encompassing many industries, including health care....more
On June 15, 2021, in a 69–28 vote, the Senate confirmed Lina Khan to fill the current vacancy at the Commissioner level of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). Immediately upon her confirmation, President Biden tapped Ms....more
On May 19, 2021, the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights of the Committee of the Judiciary held a hearing on Antitrust Applied: Hospital Consolidation Concerns and Solutions. The...more
The Multilateral Pharmaceutical Merger Task Force, a working group formed by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, State Attorneys General, and counterpart enforcement...more
On April 22, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion finding that the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) does not have the authority to order disgorgement (i.e., monetary relief) under Section 13(b) of...more
On March 25, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released its 2020 Annual Highlights report. The report’s statistics show that 46 percent of the Bureau of Competition’s enforcement actions related to the health care...more
Previously, as a member of the Republican-controlled Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter chided both the FTC Staff and her fellow Commissioners for, in her estimation, a failure to consider...more
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced new reporting thresholds for the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“Act”). The new thresholds became effective on March 4, 2021. Unlike previous years, this...more
On January 14, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it was launching a study to examine the impact of health care facility and physician group mergers. Accordingly, the FTC stated that it had requested...more
Joseph Simons, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) since May 1, 2018, has announced that he would resign effective January 29, 2021. Following Chairman Simons out of the FTC are, among others, Bureau of...more
Commissioners Christine S. Wilson and Noah Joshua Phillips of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) used a recent FTC enforcement action challenging a hospital acquisition as an opportunity to issue a statement (“Statement”)...more
On November 16, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued its annual financial report. For the seventh consecutive year, the FTC has made the determination to issue an annual financial report and separately issue (in...more
Divestiture has long been considered an appropriate and effective remedy for anticompetitive horizontal mergers. The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), as reflected in the Statement of the Bureau of Competition entitled...more
On September 21, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it was issuing an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPRM”) related to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (“HSR”) and its...more
On September 17, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced efforts to revamp and increase its retrospective research efforts. This retrospective analysis, which has been a continuing project for the FTC, “seeks to...more
On June 30, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released final Vertical Merger Guidelines. As noted previously, the agencies had issued draft guidelines that were subject to...more
In April 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released its annual report for 2019. The FTC’s annual report details the FTC’s actions over the prior year. In 2019, similar to other years, the health care industry...more