On December 18, 2023, the U.S. antitrust enforcers, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (collectively, the “Agencies”), issued their final Merger Guidelines...more
12/22/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
New Guidance ,
Sherman Act ,
The Clayton Act ,
Vertical Mergers
On August 16, 2023, the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) brought its first enforcement action under Section 8 of the Clayton Act in 40 years. At the same time, the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ” and...more
vOn July 19, 2023, the U.S. antitrust enforcers, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (collectively, the “Agencies”), released draft merger guidelines for public...more
8/15/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Draft Guidance ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Horizontal Mergers ,
Mergers ,
Pre-Merger Filing Requirements ,
Public Comment ,
SCOTUS ,
United Healthcare Insurance Co. ,
Vertical Mergers
On June 27, 2023, the FTC and DOJ (the Agencies) jointly announced proposed changes to the HSR premerger notification form. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which appeared in the Federal Register, includes provisions that...more
Last week, U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden dismissed a case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) against several aerospace engineering bosses for alleged anticompetitive use of no-poach agreements. This...more
The Government Continues to Seek Criminal Sanctions in Cases Regarding Wage-Fixing and No-Poach Agreements -
On Wednesday, March 22, a Maine federal jury acquitted four operators of home health agencies who were accused of...more
3/28/2023
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Certifications ,
Criminal Sanctions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Healthcare ,
Home Health Care ,
No-Poaching ,
Popular ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Wage-Fixing ,
Written Agreements
On Friday, February 3, DOJ announced that it is withdrawing three policy statements of antitrust guidance it has provided and that have been adopted by the healthcare industry for close to 30 years. The statements include...more
On January 23, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced revised jurisdictional thresholds for determining whether a proposed transaction must be reported to federal authorities under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR)...more
In his 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, President Biden called on the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) to “ban or limit non-compete agreements.” Last week, the FTC responded by taking...more
The $1.7 trillion government-wide omnibus spending bill announced by Congress on Tuesday incorporates a provision, entitled the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act (“the State AG Venue Act”), which could significantly alter...more
On November 10, 2022, the US Federal Trade Commission issued a new Policy Statement indicating that the current Commission plans to expand its use of Section 5 of the FTC Act. Such an expansion would constitute a significant...more
After a string of losses by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (the “Division”) in no-poach and wage fixing litigations, including a wage-fixing antitrust case in the physical therapy industry in April, the...more
Recent actions by the Biden administration, including the Treasury Department’s report on the State of Labor Market Competition in the U.S. Economy, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Labor (DOL) and...more
4/20/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Collusion ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
No-Poaching ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Sherman Act ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Wage-Fixing
Recent actions by the Biden administration, including the Treasury Department’s report on the State of Labor Market Competition in the U.S. Economy, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Labor (“DOL”) and...more
4/13/2022
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Enforcement ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
No-Poaching ,
Project Labor Agreements ,
Sherman Act ,
Wage-Fixing
On January 24, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced revised jurisdictional thresholds for determining whether a proposed transaction must be reported to federal authorities under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR)...more
Draft policy statement updates guidance from prior administration -
On December 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice, along with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the National Institutes of Standards and...more
As summarized in the July 9, 2021 King & Spalding Client Alert, President Biden issued an executive order on July 9, 2021 designed to enhance competition across multiple sectors of the U.S. economy. One of the order’s key...more
7/14/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Collusion ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
No-Poaching ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Trade Secrets ,
Wage-Fixing
The White House announced today that President Joe Biden issued an expansive executive order designed to enhance competition across multiple sectors of the U.S. economy, including healthcare, technology, internet service,...more
On March 3, 2021, DOJ filed a proposed settlement to resolve its lawsuit challenging Geisinger Health’s (Geisinger) partial acquisition of Evangelical Community Hospital (Evangelical). DOJ filed a complaint against the two...more
Agreements between companies not to solicit or to hire each other’s employees (“no poach agreements”) have been in antitrust enforcers’ crosshairs for several years now. In 2016, the DOJ and the FTC released their joint...more
After a years-long run of successfully challenging hospital mergers, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has voted to withdraw an appeal related to its attempt to block the merger of two healthcare providers in the greater...more
On February 18, 2021, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the first court-ordered divestiture arising from a privately litigated merger challenge. The Court also upheld a $36 million damages award (post-trebling) in favor of the...more
On January 7, 2021, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice announced a two-count indictment of Surgical Care Affiliates LLC (“SCA”), which owns and operates outpatient medical care centers across the...more
On December 23, 2020, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2020, which includes a provision that would repeal the limited federal antitrust immunity currently granted to certain...more
On December 10, 2020, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of Neeraj Jindal, a former owner of a therapist staffing company, for a criminal conspiracy to fix wages paid to physical...more
12/15/2020
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Civil Sanctions ,
Compliance ,
Criminal Sanctions ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Indictments ,
Investigations ,
No-Poaching ,
Wage-Fixing