NCAA vs. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma: A Win for Antitrust Law and College Football Fans
On May 7, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court opinion that denied the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) motion for a preliminary injunction against Microsoft’s acquisition of...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 prior posts, we discussed the draft, updated merger guidelines that had been issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice (sometimes referred to as the “Agencies”) in July of last year. At that...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
On December 18, 2023, the U.S. antitrust enforcers, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (collectively, the “Agencies”), issued their final Merger Guidelines...more
Consistent with the Biden administration’s whole-of-government approach to address perceived consolidation in a variety of industries, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division...more
On July 19, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a draft version of new Merger Guidelines (Merger Guidelines), which would replace the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the...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
In this article we discuss the evolving global attention towards a less common theory of harm: common ownership. We conclude by assessing the notably bullish approach taken by the Hellenic Competition Commission (the “HCC”),...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
This week, the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section kicked off its annual Spring Meeting in Washington, DC, which features updates from the antitrust enforcers and substantive discussions on today’s most pressing...more
In a departure from past enforcement priorities, the Federal Trade Commission has challenged three vertical mergers over the past year, leading the parties to abandon two of the three deals...more
The FTC sued the world’s largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc., the last independent U.S. supplier of missile propulsion systems, to block Lockheed Martin’s proposed...more
Last week saw two notable competition-related developments from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The first relates to the FTC’s approval of eight new compulsory process resolutions in high-priority areas. The second...more
For the first time since the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), collectively the agencies, issued new Vertical Merger Guidelines (Guidelines) setting forth how they intend to...more
On January 10, 2020, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission released for comment a draft of their Vertical Merger Guidelines, the first update since 1984....more
In this episode, Akin Gump antitrust partners Gorav Jindal and Corey Roush discuss antitrust developments in 2018 and look at what 2019 may bring. Among the topics covered: • antitrust under the Trump administration • major...more
The District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the request by the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) to enjoin the merger of AT&T’s television distribution business with Time Warner’s video content...more
While federal officials have stated their intent to persist in questioning vertical relationships that they hypothesize cause downstream economic effects on product flow and prices, a recent loss by the Department of Justice...more