As part of the Biden administration’s State of the Union blitz, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) convened a workshop on private equity (PE) investments in the health care industry on March 5, 2024. Immediately prior to the...more
On December 18, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (collectively, the “Agencies”) published the long-awaited final 2023 Merger Guidelines. The 2023 Merger Guidelines are informed...more
12/29/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Biden Administration ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Mergers ,
Private Equity ,
Request For Information ,
The Clayton Act ,
Transparency ,
Vertical Mergers
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
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
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
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
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 FTC and Antitrust Division held a workshop last week focused on labor issues, which superficially appears to be a continuation of the last Administration's policies. Since 2016 the agencies have warned the business...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
On Tuesday, November 2, 2021, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to block an acquisition by Penguin Random House,...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
The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) recent winning streak in its ongoing challenges of hospital and physician mergers has, at least for now, ended in a Philadelphia U.S. district court. After six days of evidentiary...more
In the latest decision addressing antitrust liability for FRAND commitments, Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn of the Northern District of Texas dismissed a complaint from Continental Automotive Systems, Inc. (“Continental”) alleging,...more
9/18/2020
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Bargaining Power ,
Breach of Contract ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Dismissal With Prejudice ,
Failure To State A Claim ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FRAND ,
Monopolization ,
Motion to Transfer ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Sherman Act ,
Standard Essential Patents ,
Standing ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Supplemental Jurisdiction ,
Unfair Competition Law (UCL)
Last Thursday, September 10, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) issued an updated Business Review Letter (“2020 Letter”) to the Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers, Incorporated...more
On Wednesday, an FTC Commissioner used the occasion of a routine report to Congress to send a warning shot to private equity firms, especially those rolling up health care providers. Commissioner Rohit Chopra, an advisor to...more