As part of their initiative to reevaluate both the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines (collectively, “Merger Guidelines”), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of...more
Parties to a transaction subject to the reporting requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR) must adhere to a statutory waiting period (30 days for most transactions) after filing their...more
Adjustments to the reporting thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements (HSR) Act of 1976 are in effect as of February 23, 2022....more
On January 28, 2022, a federal grand jury in Maine returned an indictment charging four managers of home health care agencies with participating in a conspiracy to suppress the wages and restrict the job mobility of Personal...more
2/10/2022
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Home Health Care ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
No-Poaching ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage-Fixing
The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division announced last week that they are soliciting public comments on ways to “modernize federal merger guidelines” to assist the agencies in...more
Hospital transactions, including acquisitions and mergers, that meet Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) thresholds must, subject to any available exception, be reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of...more
We’re beginning to see how mergers and acquisitions in the hospital industry are being impacted by President Biden’s executive order promoting competition in the American economy. The Federal Trade Commission recently...more
On November 9, 2021, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Christine Wilson addressed the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section’s 2021 Fall Forum. Her prepared comments, entitled “The Neo-Brandeisian...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reimplemented a policy of requiring all merger enforcement orders to include the requirement that acquisitive firms obtain prior approval from the FTC before closing any future...more
On September 28, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a blog post announcing several changes to how the FTC will investigate mergers and acquisitions and how it will approach second-request negotiations. The blog...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently issued guidance clarifying protections applicable to consumers’ sensitive personal data increasingly collected by so-called “health apps.” The FTC press release indicated it has...more
Chair Khan’s Priorities -
In a memo dated September 22, 2021, the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Lina Khan, described for the FTC Staff and fellow Commissioners what she described as her “vision and...more
On September 15, 2021, by a 3-2 vote, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) decided to withdraw the vertical merger guidelines that had been issued in 2020. In its statement supporting the withdrawal, the majority raised...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently released a policy statement addressing repair restrictions imposed by manufacturers and sellers (“Policy Statement”). The Policy Statement was the result of an FTC workshop...more
A Surge of HSR Filings -
On August 3, 2021, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) authored a blog post discussing the tsunami of Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) filings that the...more
Prior to 1995, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) required parties to a Commission Order entered in a merger case to obtain the FTC’s prior approval for any future transaction in similar markets above a de minimis...more
On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy (the “EO”). The EO casts a wide net, encompassing many industries, including health care....more
On June 15, 2021, in a 69–28 vote, the Senate confirmed Lina Khan to fill the current vacancy at the Commissioner level of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). Immediately upon her confirmation, President Biden tapped Ms....more
On May 19, 2021, the Senate Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights of the Committee of the Judiciary held a hearing on Antitrust Applied: Hospital Consolidation Concerns and Solutions. The...more
The Multilateral Pharmaceutical Merger Task Force, a working group formed by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, State Attorneys General, and counterpart enforcement...more
On April 22, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion finding that the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) does not have the authority to order disgorgement (i.e., monetary relief) under Section 13(b) of...more
On March 25, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) released its 2020 Annual Highlights report. The report’s statistics show that 46 percent of the Bureau of Competition’s enforcement actions related to the health care...more
Previously, as a member of the Republican-controlled Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter chided both the FTC Staff and her fellow Commissioners for, in her estimation, a failure to consider...more
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced new reporting thresholds for the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (“Act”). The new thresholds became effective on March 4, 2021. Unlike previous years, this...more
On January 14, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it was launching a study to examine the impact of health care facility and physician group mergers. Accordingly, the FTC stated that it had requested...more