In a quiet yet shocking announcement on February 3, 2023, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew three major antitrust policy statements (collectively, the “Statements”) that have served for...more
In a quiet yet shocking announcement on February 3, 2023, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew three major antitrust policy statements that have served for years as mainstays of health care...more
The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), effective December...more
The Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Andrew Forman, recently spoke to the American Bar Association’s Mergers and Acquisitions Committee at the Business Law...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice have prioritized the protection of labor markets. From scrutinizing “no-poach” agreements and restrictive covenants to analyzing the impact of mergers and...more
Both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) have authority to enforce Section 7 of the Clayton Act by investigating and challenging mergers where the effect of such...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are actively considering ways to “modernize” and strengthen their merger enforcement guidelines....more
As part of their initiative to reevaluate both the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines (collectively, “Merger Guidelines”), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of...more
Parties to a transaction subject to the reporting requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR) must adhere to a statutory waiting period (30 days for most transactions) after filing their...more
Adjustments to the reporting thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements (HSR) Act of 1976 are in effect as of February 23, 2022....more
On January 28, 2022, a federal grand jury in Maine returned an indictment charging four managers of home health care agencies with participating in a conspiracy to suppress the wages and restrict the job mobility of Personal...more
2/10/2022
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Home Health Care ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
No-Poaching ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage-Fixing
The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division announced last week that they are soliciting public comments on ways to “modernize federal merger guidelines” to assist the agencies in...more
Hospital transactions, including acquisitions and mergers, that meet Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) thresholds must, subject to any available exception, be reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of...more
We’re beginning to see how mergers and acquisitions in the hospital industry are being impacted by President Biden’s executive order promoting competition in the American economy. The Federal Trade Commission recently...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
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
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 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
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
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