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
Section 7 of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. § 18) prohibits mergers and acquisitions where “the effect may be substantially to lessen competition, or tend to create a monopoly.” Although drafted in part to address potential...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 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
As organizations create joint ventures, the creation of a board of directors of the joint venture requires careful consideration. Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 (“the Clayton Act”) prohibits an individual from...more
When released in draft form for public comment on January 10, 2020, the Vertical Merger Guidelines (“Vertical Guidelines”) included a safety zone indicating that “the Agencies [i.e., the U.S. Department of Justice and the...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 a June 18, 2020, letter to the heads of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, several U.S. Senators expressed their views that the draft vertical merger guidelines...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
One of the more difficult questions faced by a dominant firm is whether to do business with a rival. The general rule, premised on the principle that true competition affords everyone the ability to make decisions about whom...more
On April 30, 2020, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a press release announcing a deferred prosecution agreement with a major oncology practice in Florida. As a condition of the deferred...more
Antitrust enforcers from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), during a roundtable discussion at this year’s virtual spring meeting of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section, proclaimed that, with certain...more
On March 24, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that they would expedite antitrust guidance for COVID-19 public health projects. In the agencies’ joint statement,...more
The Premerger Notification Office of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that their review of Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) filings will continue despite...more
As organizations are working to respond to the 2019 novel coronavirus (known as “COVID-19”), the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a reminder that emergency efforts do not negate the requirement to adhere to the...more
3/13/2020
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Bid Rigging ,
Competition ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Emergency Response ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Preventive Health Care ,
Price-Fixing ,
Public Health
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) (collectively, the “Agencies”) have a long history of teaming up to ensure that advertising and other promotional communications for...more
2/27/2020
/ Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Biologics ,
Biosimilars ,
Competition ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Healthcare Costs ,
Joint Statements ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sales Promotions ,
Truth in Advertising
Adjustments to the reporting thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“Act”) will become effective on February 27, 2020. At that time, the minimum size-of-transaction threshold goes up to $94...more
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (collectively, “Agencies”) recently released for public comment their much-anticipated draft Vertical Merger Guidelines (“Guidelines”) that purport to “outline...more
1/30/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Comment Period ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Draft Guidance ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Horizontal Merger Guidelines ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Vertical Mergers
Providers that are not financially or clinically integrated must keep separate operations. This can extend to the use of a common agent for the non-integrated providers. The U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade...more