The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published today in the Federal Register increased jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR...more
As has been expected, on January 18, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced in a joint press conference an initiative to review and revise the...more
The Federal Trade Commission is closing out the year with vigorous enforcement of the Hart Scott Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“HSR Act”) by imposing fines totaling nearly $2 million. On December 22, 2021, the...more
On December 6 and 7, 2021, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) hosted a virtual workshop to discuss competition issues in labor markets and plans to execute President...more
12/10/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Competition ,
Compliance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Mergers ,
OSHA ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Wages
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) just announced that they will host a virtual workshop on December 6 and 7, 2021, to discuss the agencies’ efforts to promote...more
A blog post from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) on Tuesday was the latest announcement suggesting that a shake-up is underway for the agency’s merger review process. The post stated that the FTC’s Bureau of Competition...more
Last week was momentous for the Federal Trade Commission. First, the campaign use antitrust to reign in “Big Tech” faced a setback as the United States District Court for District of Columbia dismissed the FTC’s suit against...more
7/13/2021
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Big Tech ,
Competition ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Google ,
Instagram ,
Monopolization ,
Sherman Act ,
Social Media ,
WhatsApp
On July 9th, President Biden issued a broad-based Executive Order “to promote competition in the American economy.” In the White House’s own words...more
On Tuesday, May 11, 2021, an international coalition of competition enforcement agencies including the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, Offices of State Attorneys General,...more
On April 22, 2021, in a unanimous decision authored by Justice Stephen Breyer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) does not have the authority to seek monetary relief under Section 13(b) of...more
Last week, Geisinger Health (“Geisinger”) and Evangelical Community Hospital (“Evangelical”) reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), resolving the DOJ’s ongoing litigation challenging...more
Back in December, we wrote about a district court ruling rejecting the Federal Trade Comission’s (“FTC”) motion to enjoin the proposed combination of Thomas Jefferson University (“TJU”) and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network...more
The FTC, and antitrust enforcement in general, are having their moment. For example, in early January the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in AMG Capital Management v. Federal Trade Commission, a case questioning the FTC’s...more
2/10/2021
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
AMG Capital Management LLC v FTC ,
Article III ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Due Process ,
En Banc Review ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
FTCA Section 13(b) ,
Jurisdiction ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Mergers ,
Restitution ,
SCOTUS ,
Seila Law LLC v Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ,
Separation of Powers ,
Standing
Lower jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act”), as amended, are scheduled to be published by the Federal Trade Commission...more
2/10/2021
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
Threshold Requirements
Yesterday the Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury indicted Neeraj Jindal, the former owner of a therapist staffing company in north Texas, for his participation in a conspiracy to fix the wages of...more
The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) recent winning streak in its ongoing challenges of hospital and physician mergers has, at least for now, ended in a Philadelphia U.S. district court. After six days of evidentiary...more
On September 29, 2020, Judge Sarah Pitlyk, a 2019 Trump appointee to the Eastern District of Missouri, granted the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction barring two thermal coal producers, Arch...more
In the process of green-lighting a vertical merger with a firewall remedy, the current Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) exposed a significant partisan divergence in the commissioners’ approach to vertical...more
On October 22, 2018, the FTC announced it had reached a settlement with industrial gas suppliers Praxair, Inc. and Linde AG (the “Parties”) arising out of their proposed merger. According to the FTC’s Complaint, issued by 4-1...more
11/1/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Competition ,
Divestiture ,
Divestment ,
Energy Sector ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Mergers ,
Oil & Gas ,
Private Equity Firms ,
Public Comment ,
The Clayton Act
The Premerger Notification Office (the “PNO”) of the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) recently issued a reminder about often overlooked “transactions” that may require notification under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust...more
5/21/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Failure-to-File ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Voting Securities
As we reported in an earlier blog post, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice issued guidance in the waning days of the Obama administration reminding HR professionals and others that the antitrust laws could...more
2/13/2018
/ Antitrust Division ,
Consent Decrees ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
No-Hire/No-Solicitation Agreements ,
No-Poaching ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage-Fixing
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on January 26, 2018, increased jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the HSR...more
1/29/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Reporting Requirements ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Voting Securities
While antitrust enforcement of hospital mergers is well-established, physician acquisitions have only recently and increasingly seen antitrust scrutiny. Last week, in a 69-page opinion, a federal district court granted the...more
Although the Federal Trade Commission currently is short-handed with one Democrat and one Republican serving on the Commission (out of a normal lineup of five), today they showed that bi-partisan consensus still can exist in...more
Even with a reduced lineup of only two commissioners — the Republican Acting Chair and one Democratic Commissioner — the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC” or “Commission”) filed an administrative complaint this week against...more
6/2/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Immunity ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Appraisal ,
Competition ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Real Estate Market ,
Real Estate Professionals ,
Section 5 ,
State Action Immunity ,
State Boards