The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the annual changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act notification thresholds – effective for deals closing on or after March 6, 2024 – and updated filing fee thresholds, effective...more
2/9/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Section 8 ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (the "CMA") has published a research report on competition and market power in labour markets. The report is likely to reinforce the CMA’s determination to use its competition law...more
On December 18, 2023, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") and Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") published in final form the long-awaited 2023 Merger Guidelines. The final 2023 Merger Guidelines adopt—with some significant...more
White & Case Global Antitrust Merger StatPak (WAMS)—the first real-time clearinghouse for global merger notification data—has analyzed merger notifications in reporting jurisdictions around the first half of calendar year...more
9/28/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
EU ,
Global Dealmaking ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
OECD ,
Popular ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
UK
The Proposed Merger Guidelines represent the DOJ's and the FTC's aggressive scrutiny of mergers. As one of the most important reflections of policy the Antitrust Agencies use to analyze transactions, the Proposed...more
If the proposed rule is finalized, merging parties will face expansive requirements for HSR filings and lengthy filing preparation times.
On June 27, 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"), with the concurrence of...more
The UK antitrust authority, the CMA, has recently published a guide for employers on how to avoid breaching UK antitrust law in labour markets. This publication signals the UK's intent to ratchet up antitrust scrutiny of...more
3/20/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
No-Poaching ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ,
United States
The Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice ("DOJ") continues to aggressively pursue alleged illegal interlocking directorates that violate Section 8 of the Clayton Act, and in particular, interlocks involving...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the annual changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act notification thresholds – effective for deals closing on or after February 27, 2023 – and the new HSR merger filing fees....more
1/27/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Section 8 ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements
Prior to the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act—which was signed into US law on December 29, 2022 as part of the omnibus spending bill—the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) had the power to transfer and...more
Filing fees under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act have not been altered for 20 years, but that is about to change, and dramatically in 2023. President Biden is expected to sign into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act,...more
12/28/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Domestic Dealmaking ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Foreign Entities ,
Global Dealmaking ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Proposed Regulation
Australia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey See Significant Surge in Merger Filing Activity; US and EU Merger Filing Activity is Down Compared to 2021's Record Levels, But Still Above Historical Levels -
White & Case...more
12/20/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Australia ,
Biden Administration ,
Brazil ,
Competition ,
EU ,
EU Horizontal Safeguard Regulation (HSR) ,
European Commission ,
Investigations ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Russia ,
Saudi Arabia ,
Turkey ,
Ukraine
...Key Highlights -
According to WAMS data, US merger control filing activity has cooled off: H1 2022 merger filing activity is down 23 percent versus H1 2021. However, US HSR filings in H1 2022 are 47 percent above the...more
7/19/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Austria ,
Brazil ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Germany ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers
The Government of Kuwait has recently amended its competition law to include for the first time a pre-merger notification regime based on turnover thresholds. Kuwait's Competition Protection Agency has started to apply the...more
On January 21, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the annual changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act notification thresholds.
The FTC is required by law to revise the jurisdictional thresholds annually,...more
The focus on using the antitrust laws to target labor markets has been gaining momentum for years, but the close of 2021 saw the trend hit overdrive with antitrust attacks on perceived harm to workers coming from all corners...more
1/11/2022
/ Antitrust Division ,
Classification ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Penalties ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employees ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Indictments ,
Mergers ,
Misclassification ,
No-Poaching ,
Sherman Act ,
Vertical Mergers ,
Wage-Fixing
On October 25, 2021, a deeply divided FTC voted 3-2 to enact a major policy change relevant to every party involved in settling a merger investigation with the FTC. Earlier this year, the FTC signaled its intent to bring back...more
In a speech on 22 October 2021, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager revealed that the European Commission was planning a series of dawn raids for the months to come. She highlighted that the European Commission is...more
This autumn, European competition authorities are likely to resume dawn raids of companies suspected of competition law infringements. This will aim to clear a backlog of planned inspections that has built up since the start...more
On Tuesday, August 3, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission announced a new approach for merger investigations that the FTC does not complete during the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) waiting period—the FTC may advise merging...more
8/6/2021
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Buyers ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Investigations ,
Mergers ,
Sellers ,
Waiting Periods ,
Warning Letters
On Friday, July 9, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14036, Promoting Competition in the American Economy, which includes—among 72 initiatives aimed at enhancing competition in the US—a directive encouraging the...more
The new Executive Order includes 72 initiatives instructing more than a dozen federal agencies to consider adopting rules intended to enhance competition.
A new Executive Order signed by President Biden includes 72...more
New challenges may lie ahead for the pharmaceutical industry -
What’s next for drug pricing in the US?
Proposals to alter antitrust and patent laws may signal a renewed focus on drug pricing by federal lawmakers,...more
As 2020 closed, Congress passed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which embedded an unrelated set of provisions called the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 ("AMLA-2020" or "the Act"). AMLA mandates disclosures...more
For further information, please visit the White & Case Coronavirus Resource Center. The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and Department of Justice ("DOJ") announced today that they are temporarily suspending any grants of...more