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
This article is part of a monthly column that considers the significance of recent Federal Trade Commission antitrust announcements. In this installment, we discuss what to expect from the Trump administration's approach to...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 February 11, the FTC announced adjustments to the maximum civil penalty amounts for violations of 16 provisions of laws it enforces, as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act. The...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
In the two weeks before Inauguration, both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a flurry of rulemaking developments, policy announcements, and enforcement filings and...more
In the closing days of the Biden administration, antitrust law enforcers issued cautions to employers about conduct that could draw criminal charges against them. One is the use of restrictive non-disclosure agreements that...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
Primary HSR Filing Threshold will be Increased to $126.4 Million - The Federal Trade Commission has announced revisions to HSR Act and Clayton Act Section 8 thresholds, which are indexed annually in alignment with prior...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the annual changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act notification and filing fee thresholds, expected to go into effect in February 2025. The FTC is required by law to revise...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
In a December 2023 statement, the White House detailed its intention to encourage antitrust enforcers to scrutinize anticompetitive acquisitions and anticompetitive practices in health care. Specifically, the statement...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Sept. 21, 2023, sued a private equity firm in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas over an alleged decade-long "roll-up" strategy to consolidate anesthesiology...more
Since the beginning of Chair Khan’s tenure at the Federal Trade Commission (and in line with President Biden’s aim to curb rising health care costs), the current FTC has committed to bring enforcement actions against health...more
On August 16, 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) brought its first enforcement action under Section 8 of the Clayton Act in 40 years. At the same time, the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ” and...more
On August 16, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“the FTC”) marked its first enforcement action of the prohibitions on interlocking directorates under Section 8 of the Clayton Act in over 40 years. Section 8 prohibits an...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
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
Aggressive merger enforcement continued through the end of 2022, with the agencies having mixed results in the courts. With several high-profile investigations still pending, the expectation is for aggressive enforcement to...more