Fierce Competition Podcast | Private Equity Under the Antitrust Microscope
The Latest on Antitrust Compliance
Twenty Democratic AGs, led by Colorado AG Phil Weiser, have submitted a letter to the U.S. DOJ opposing its proposed settlement in the antitrust litigation related to the $14 billion merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise...more
An Idaho transgender athlete asked the U.S. Supreme Court this week to drop a challenge against a state law that “bars transgender girls and women from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams,” according to a filing by her...more
Under the current administration, there have been significant shakeups at the antitrust enforcement agencies, including the FTC and the DOJ Antitrust Division, which have led to uncertainty regarding enforcement priorities....more
On August 15, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit raised the bar for bringing antitrust claims against companies that provide or use pricing algorithms. The decision begins to clarify an area of antitrust...more
I’m not well-versed in antitrust law – nor do I want to be – but this recent FTC/DOJ Statement of Interest from the antitrust lawsuit filed by the State of Texas against BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard bears on...more
Key Takeaways - A recent statement of interest from the U.S. Department of Justice focuses on “fact checking” efforts as potential antitrust violations due to the potential to suppress competition within the “marketplace of...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) recently announced a series of proposed merger settlement agreements that offer increased insight into how the agencies intend to use...more
The FTC and DOJ under President Trump have each recently approved divestiture remedies for potentially anticompetitive mergers, signaling a significant departure from the practice of the Biden administration, which viewed...more
What the final days of the Biden administration portend for private equity enforcement in Trump 2.0 - During the final days of the Biden administration, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the...more
A suit brought by state attorneys general accusing Google of overseeing a broad scheme of anticompetitive conduct in digital display advertising markets will continue following a Jan. 28, 2025, ruling from the Eastern...more
President-elect Trump will act quickly to replace Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and roll back certain Biden-era antitrust initiatives. The new administration is likely to bring a more favorable merger review...more
Exclusionary conduct has been a key to Visa’s success. The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Visa Inc. in the Southern District of New York yesterday for illegal...more
There has been a spate of legislation and lawsuits targeting the use of software that gives visibility to competitors’ prices. This allows firms to adjust their prices, either undercutting the competition or setting a de...more
Following a nine-week bench trial starting in September 2023 and closing arguments in May 2024, District of Columbia district court judge Amit Mehta ruled on August 5, 2024, that Google illegally maintained its monopoly in...more
This week’s decision in United States v. Google represents a significant victory for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and various state attorneys general, which successfully argued that Google has exercised...more
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, giving remarks about the lawsuit, highlighted public criticism over Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s “exorbitant fees and technological failures” and stated that this lawsuit is “what...more
On May 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Antitrust Division announced a Request for Information (“RFI”) seeking information from the public to “identify serial acquisitions...more
Expanding the range of ways they can identify and investigate potential competition concerns in healthcare, DOJ, FTC, and HHS recently announced the introduction of HealthyCompetition.gov, a new portal through which the...more
The FTC, U.S. DOJ, and HHS have launched an online portal for the public to report potentially unfair and anticompetitive health care practices to the FTC and the Antitrust Division of the DOJ....more
For the third time in as many months, the U.S. federal antitrust enforcement authorities -- the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice -- have filed a statement of interest in an...more
As part of its whole-of-government effort to enforce the antitrust laws, the Biden administration recently launched a new interagency Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing (Strike Force), which will be co-chaired by the...more
On March 5, the FTC convened a workshop with regulators, academics and stakeholders to discuss the impact of private equity in the healthcare market. The workshop reflects the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division’s recent focus on...more
On March 5, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly issued a Request for Information on Consolidation in Health Care...more
A recent government initiative announced on March 5, 2024 signals that more antitrust scrutiny for private equity firms and asset managers is on the horizon. The U.S. antitrust agencies, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”)...more
On December 18, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) released final revisions to the Merger Guidelines (the “2023 Merger Guidelines”) that frame the agencies’...more