The Biden Administration recently convened the first meeting of its Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing (Strike Force), an interagency initiative announced in March 2024 to “root out and stop illegal corporate behavior...more
8/22/2024
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Agriculture ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Nursing Homes ,
Popular ,
Private Equity ,
Supply Chain ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices ,
Unfair Pricing
On May 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Antitrust Division announced a Request for Information (“RFI”) seeking information from the public to “identify serial acquisitions...more
6/5/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Healthcare ,
Pricing ,
Public Comment ,
Request For Information ,
Suppliers ,
The Clayton Act
On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) promulgated its final rule prohibiting non-competes for most workers in the United States (the “Final Rule”). The Final Rule raises several issues, including...more
5/2/2024
/ Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Franchises ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Nonprofits ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Selling a Business ,
Unfair Competition
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (the “Commission”) voted to issue its final rule (the “Final Rule”) barring non-competes for most workers in the United States, with exceptions for non-competes entered into in...more
As anticipated, cartel enforcement is ramping up at the start of 2024 and investigations relating to artificial intelligence (AI) are taking center stage. Leadership of both the broader Department of Justice (DOJ) and the...more
4/4/2024
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Bid Rigging ,
Cartels ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Preservation ,
Dawn Raids ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) ,
Merger Controls ,
Mexican Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Popular ,
Price-Fixing ,
Pricing ,
Software ,
UK ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
As part of its whole-of-government effort to enforce the antitrust laws, the Biden administration recently launched a new interagency Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing (Strike Force), which will be co-chaired by the...more
On January 26, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (the “Division”) announced that both agencies are updating language in critical documents for civil and criminal...more
On January 22, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published new, higher notification thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act”). The HSR Act requires the FTC to adjust the...more
On December 18—nearly two years after announcing plans to revise the Merger Guidelines—the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (together, “the Agencies”) issued a final version of their new...more
The third quarter of 2023 was eventful for both domestic and international cartel enforcers.
In the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continues to revamp policies to sharpen its enforcement efforts. On...more
10/27/2023
/ Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Bid Rigging ,
Cartels ,
Collusion ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Dawn Raids ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) ,
Fraud ,
Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) ,
Memorandum of Understanding ,
Mexican Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) ,
Military Contracts ,
Procurement Collusion Strike Force ,
Safe Harbors ,
Self-Reporting ,
Sherman Act ,
World Cup
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (collectively, the “Agencies”) released for public comment draft Merger Guidelines that outline how the agencies evaluate proposed deals. The Agencies have...more
7/28/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Draft Guidance ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Foreclosure ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Horizontal Merger Guidelines ,
Market Manipulation ,
Market-Sharing ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Minority Shareholders ,
Vertical Mergers
At this mid-point of 2023, and now several months on from the ABA’s Spring Antitrust conference, there have been several notable developments concerning cartel enforcement, as new leadership settles in at the U.S. Department...more
7/12/2023
/ Abuse of Dominance ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Bid Rigging ,
Cartels ,
Collusion ,
Competition ,
Dawn Raids ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
EU ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Instant Messaging Apps ,
Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Military Contracts ,
No-Poaching ,
Olympics ,
Policy Statement ,
Popular ,
Price-Fixing ,
Procurement Collusion Strike Force ,
Red Bull ,
Wage-Fixing ,
Whistleblowers
On June 27, 2023, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), with the collaboration and concurrence of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “Notice”)...more
On January 23, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published new, higher notification thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act”). The HSR Act requires the FTC to adjust the...more
On January 4, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced settlements with three companies for their use of employee non-compete restrictions in alleged violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act. Specifically, the FTC...more
Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (the “Act”) on December 22, 2022, and President Biden signed it into law on December 29, 2022. The Act significantly amends the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (the “HSR Act”)...more
1/11/2023
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Blocked Person ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Foreign Entities ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
SDN List ,
State Attorneys General
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule broadly seeking to ban non-compete agreements with nearly all U.S. workers, with only limited exceptions. The proposed rule would:
•make it...more
In 2022, antitrust authorities around the world were pursuing more investigations, bringing new types of cases, and making policy changes to spark even more enforcement actions.
In the United States, the Department of...more
12/21/2022
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Bid Rigging ,
Canada ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dawn Raids ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Monopolization ,
No-Poaching ,
OECD ,
Procurement Collusion Strike Force ,
Sherman Act ,
Wage-Fixing
Recent scrutiny of interlocking directorates – when a person serves as an officer or board director of two competing corporations – by the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission...more
In the latest employment-related collaborations under President Biden, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) and Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) both recently announced new partnerships with the National...more
On June 3, 2022, Andrew Forman, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) publicly stated that the DOJ is considering “enhancing antitrust enforcement around a...more
6/22/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare ,
Home Health Care ,
Joe Biden ,
Monopolization ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Popular ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Private Equity
The end of 2021 continued to be a busy time for antitrust enforcers in the U.S. and around the world. Perhaps most notably, in November the Senate confirmed Jonathan Kanter to lead the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust...more
1/26/2022
/ Antitrust Division ,
Bid Rigging ,
Bids ,
Cartels ,
Collusion ,
Construction Contracts ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Dawn Raids ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Mistrial ,
Ocean Transportation System ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sherman Act ,
Supply Chain ,
Trading Plans ,
Tyson Foods ,
Wage-Fixing
On January 24, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published new, higher notification thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act”). The HSR Act requires the FTC to adjust the...more
On January 18, 2022, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) held a joint press conference to announce the launch of a broad‑ranging public inquiry aimed at...more
“If adopted and implemented by the agencies, the measures [in Biden’s executive order] would amount to the toughest antitrust enforcement that we’ve seen in the U.S. in decades.”
The award-winning women partners of...more