NCAA vs. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma: A Win for Antitrust Law and College Football Fans
Under the old guard of the prior administration, private equity was repeatedly under fire for alleged “flip and strip” tactics that were supposedly “at odds with competition.” Now, with new enforcers in place, a different...more
In a recent speech, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bill Rinner of the DOJ Antitrust Division outlined the Division’s approach to merger enforcement in the Trump administration under the leadership of Assistant Attorney...more
The Spring Meeting is the largest gathering of competition, consumer protection, and data privacy professionals globally, with lawyers, academics, economists, enforcers, journalists, and students from around the world....more
On March 7, 2025, the FTC filed a complaint in federal court seeking to block GTCR BC Holdings, LLC, a Chicago private equity firm, from acquiring Surmodics, Inc. The FTC alleges that Surmodics is the leading provider of a...more
On January 17, in the final days of the Biden Administration, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a settlement with private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Rowe (Welsh Carson) in lieu of bringing an...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced the new filing fees, along with the annual adjustment to jurisdictional thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“HSR”), as amended. The filing...more
On January 10, 2025, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission filed a statement of interest in Musk v. Altman, signaling a late push by the government to expand the scope of liability for interlocking...more
On January 10, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its adjusted reporting thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (HSR Act). The FTC revises the HSR Act thresholds...more
There were a number of significant developments in antitrust law in 2024, including some major wins for the government in merger enforcement, increased focus on competition concerns related to algorithmic pricing, and...more
The incoming Trump administration suggests a potential return to more traditional levels of antitrust enforcement for energy industry mergers and a departure from novel theories of harm seen under current Federal Trade...more
This newsletter is a summary of the antitrust developments we think are most interesting to your business. Roxane Hicheri (counsel based in Paris) and Mark Steenson (counsel based in London) are our editors this month. They...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced the launch of “an easily accessible online portal for the public to report health care...more
On December 18, 2023, The Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice concluded a nearly two-year process of updating both the horizontal and vertical merger guidelines with the release of the...more
Antitrust enforcement has been heating up over the last few years in several areas – notably in healthcare and labor. As the antitrust climate intensifies and spreads, private equity (PE) firms are starting to feel the heat,...more
In March 2023, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) announced that five additional directors have resigned from four corporate boards in response to the DOJ’s efforts to enforce prohibitions against so-called...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced Monday that it had reversed its in-house Administrative Law Judge’s (“ALJ”) Initial Decision dismissing a complaint brought by FTC staff against Illumina, Inc.’s acquisition of...more
The Biden Administration's aggressive antitrust enforcers have trained their sights on private equity companies. They have signaled through enforcement activities, formal policy statements and informal interviews and speeches...more
On October 19, 2022, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a press release heralding the resignation of seven directors from ten companies’ boards of directors in response to the government’s...more
The business community was put on notice last week after the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the resignations of seven directors from five corporate boards following what DOJ called the “first in a broader review of...more
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last week that directors at several technology companies have resigned as a consequence of the agency’s renewed focus on overlapping board membership between...more
On October 19, 2022, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice announced that seven directors resigned from five different US public company boards of directors following DOJ concerns that their roles violated...more
On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order, in which he described the nation’s antitrust laws as the “first line of defense against the monopolization of the American economy” and encouraged the Federal Trade...more
US antitrust enforcers have signaled that private equity firms are the prime targets for upcoming aggressive antitrust merger enforcement. In a recent interview, US Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter stated that the...more
In remarks delivered on January 18, 2022, and January 24, 2022, Jonathan Kanter, the Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division, laid out the areas where he perceives...more
On November 2, 2021, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the planned $2.175 billion merger between powerhouse publishing companies...more