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Antitrust
Paul Weiss Discusses the Effect Of DOJ’s New Merger Remedy Guidance on Private Equity Purchasers
On September 3, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it is publishing a Merger Remedies Manual. Significantly, the new manual recognizes that “in some cases a private equity purchaser may be [a] preferred” …
Davis Polk Discusses DOJ’s Updated Merger Remedies Manual
On September 3, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice released its updated Merger Remedies Manual (the “Manual”). The Manual emphasizes the DOJ’s strong preference for “structural” remedies (i.e., divestitures) over “behavioral” or “conduct” remedies to address potential competitive harms that …
Skadden Discusses FTC and DOJ Enforcement of M&A Divestiture Orders
Recent enforcement actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) demonstrate the agencies’ continued close scrutiny of merging parties’ compliance with divestiture orders. Last month, the FTC required Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (ACT), a …
Debevoise & Plimpton Discusses Whether EU Antitrust and Data Privacy Rules Are Converging
Competition v Privacy. Competition and consumer authorities are increasingly considering the implications of digital platforms’ ownership and use of consumer data and whether concerns about harm to privacy are indicative of a lack of competition.
For a long time the …
Skadden Discusses FTC and DOJ Vertical Merger Guidelines
Following their January publication of Draft Vertical Merger Guidelines (draft guidelines) for public comment, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) (collectively, the agencies) issued final Vertical Merger Guidelines (Guidelines) on June 30, 2020.1 This marks …
Davis Polk Discusses Revised DOJ and FTC Vertical Merger Guidelines
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission released a final version of the agencies’ updated Vertical Merger Guidelines. The updated Guidelines are broadly consistent with the draft Guidelines the DOJ and FTC released in …
Cleary Gottlieb Discusses New UK Powers to Intervene in Mergers on Public Interest Grounds
On 22 June 2020, the UK Government introduced new measures allowing it to intervene in merger transactions “to maintain in the United Kingdom the capability to combat, and to mitigate the effects of, public health emergencies.”[1] The Government will …
Paul Weiss Discusses Enhanced Cooperation Between SEC and DOJ Antitrust Division
On June 22, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation between the two agencies. According to the agencies’ …
Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Significant Ruling on EU Merger Control
On 28 May 2020, the General Court of the European Union (“General Court”) handed down its judgment in Case 399/16 CK Telecoms UK Investments Ltd v European Commission (the “Judgment”), annulling the decision of the European …
The Conundrum of Common Ownership
My forthcoming article, “The Conundrum of Common Ownership,” examines the phenomenon of common ownership through a corporate governance lens. The common ownership debate has become one of the most contentious in corporate law. It is a by-product of …
Skadden Discusses Merger Reviews and Antitrust Investigations Under Brexit Agreement
The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published “Guidance on the Functions of the CMA Under the Withdrawal Agreement” (Guidance), which sets out the regulator’s approach to merger and competition cases during the Brexit transition period that …
Davis Polk Reviews China Antitrust in 2019
Last year marked the eleventh anniversary of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (the “AML”). In 2019, China announced the first-ever set of proposed amendments to the AML as well as the introduction of several new regulations aimed at more transparency …
Wachtell Lipton Discusses U.S. M&A Antitrust Enforcement for 2019 and the Year Ahead
In a year of robust M&A activity, the U.S. antitrust agencies investigated and challenged transactions in many sectors of the economy. The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice initiated court challenges to block four proposed transactions and …
Why We Need Interagency Merger Review in Labor Markets
As empirical evidence of labor-market concentration mounts, academics and policymakers advance proposals to challenge or reverse its effects on workers’ wages and labor-market options. Prominent among these is more aggressive review of the labor-market effects of mergers by the Department …
Common Ownership and Competition in Mergers and Acquisitions
Common ownership – the phenomenon of firms sharing stockholders with industry competitors – is becoming ubiquitous, with 82 percent of S&P 500 firms having common ownership at the end of 2015 compared with just 17 percent in 1990.
At least …
Merger Breakups
One of today’s most pressing antitrust questions is how antitrust should address the conduct of dominant technology companies, such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Once heralded as the champions of innovation and the modern economy, these companies are now the …
Cleary Gottlieb Discusses the UK Competition Law Implications of a No-Deal Brexit
A no-deal Brexit would have significant and immediate effects on UK competition law enforcement:
- Parallel investigation of mergers, cartels, and dominance cases by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) and European Commission (“EC”);
- Possible delay to transactions notified to
Davis Polk Discusses FTC Scrutiny of Vertical Mergers
The U.S. antitrust agencies have struggled for decades to provide comprehensive guidance on the antitrust treatment of so-called vertical mergers—generally, mergers of two companies at different levels of the distribution chain. Recent developments suggest a new effort to articulate the …
Cadwalader Discusses Hart-Scott-Rodino Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2018
On September 16, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) released the agencies’ 41st Annual Hart-Scott-Rodino Report, which summarizes FTC and DOJ actions conducted under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements …