Sky Blog
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 …
The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant financial distress for many businesses and there have been a number of bankruptcy filings recently,[1] with more likely on the horizon. As a result, there is likely to be an increase in acquisitions …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Since the fall of 2016, federal, state, and private enforcers have sharpened their focus on allegedly anticompetitive restrictions in labor markets: so-called “no-poach” and wage-fixing agreements. This remains a hotly debated topic, with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the …
In the last decade, private equity sponsors increasingly have pursued “strategic” deals — transactions combining two or more competitors. The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have actively enforced the antitrust merger laws …
On November 15, 2018, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim delivered remarks at the American Bar Association Antitrust Section Fall Forum in which he discussed three recent settlements of ongoing civil and criminal investigations and highlighted efforts by the Antitrust Division …
For the past 40 years, U.S. antitrust law has been understood as a consumer welfare prescription against conduct leading to higher prices, reduced output, and lower quality or innovation. A growing number of commentators argue, however, that this understanding of …
Speaking at an antitrust conference on January 19, 2018, Makan Delrahim, the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, stated that over the next few months DOJ will be announcing indictments charging criminal antitrust violations relating to no-poach agreements. DOJ’s …
The process of determining whether big mergers comply with antitrust laws is careful and intensive. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice reported that in 2011 they examined in detail 40 percent, and initiated second request investigations in …
There is an emerging consensus that antitrust law promotes innovation. According to this theory, a monopolist has little reason to create superior goods and methods unless those efforts would increase the monopolist’s market power. In fact, a monopolist can preserve …
On September 26, 2017, the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) sued to unwind Parker-Hannifin Corporation’s (Parker’s) consummated acquisition of CLARCOR Inc. (CLARCOR) on the ground the transaction created a monopoly in the US market for aviation fuel filtration …
On February 3, 2017, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) released the findings of its “Merger Remedy Study” (the FTC Study) which examined the effectiveness of Commission-required remedies in transactions from 2006 to 2012.[1] The FTC Study—its …
It is too early to predict with confidence the direction that antitrust policy will take in the Trump Administration, because the President-elect has not yet announced who will lead the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) or the …
“Nice merger you’ve got here. It would be a shame if anything was to happen to it.”[1]
In antitrust and related areas of economic regulation, private leveraging is risky business. Large firms that use substantial market power in one …
In October 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) held that transfers of personal data from Europe to the United States made under the so-called US Safe Harbor scheme were invalid as those transfers did not ensure …
On September 24, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio denied the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the merger of Steris Corporation (“Steris”) and Synergy Health plc (“Synergy”), two providers …