Fierce Competition Podcast | Private Equity Under the Antitrust Microscope
The Latest on Antitrust Compliance
On December 10, 2024, President-elect Trump named FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson as next Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), replacing Chair Lina Khan on January 20, 2025. As a Senate-approved sitting...more
President-elect Trump will act quickly to replace Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and roll back certain Biden-era antitrust initiatives. The new administration is likely to bring a more favorable merger review...more
At the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) open meeting this month, agency staff and commissioners discussed the recently launched " Merger Portal." The portal is available on the FTC's website and provides the public with an...more
On October 24, 2024, to the surprise of many legal observers and fashion industry executives, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) secured a preliminary injunction blocking a proposed $8.5 billion deal between Tapestry and...more
Welcome to Juntos, our bulletin that explores antitrust and competition developments across US-Latin America. In this issue, we look at key headlines from throughout 2024....more
There has been a spate of legislation and lawsuits targeting the use of software that gives visibility to competitors’ prices. This allows firms to adjust their prices, either undercutting the competition or setting a de...more
What Happened? As reported by Alston & Bird’s Antitrust Group, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice hosted the first public meeting of the Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing (the “Strike...more
Following a nine-week bench trial starting in September 2023 and closing arguments in May 2024, District of Columbia district court judge Amit Mehta ruled on August 5, 2024, that Google illegally maintained its monopoly in...more
The FTC lost its challenge to Novant's acquisition of two hospitals owned by Community Health Systems ("CHS") but obtained an injunction pending appeal. Soon after learning the injunction was granted, Novant dropped the...more
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
On 13 May, a federal district court judge dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust case against private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and affiliated entities (Welsh Carson). This matter has been...more
Expanding the range of ways they can identify and investigate potential competition concerns in healthcare, DOJ, FTC, and HHS recently announced the introduction of HealthyCompetition.gov, a new portal through which the...more
The FTC, U.S. DOJ, and HHS have launched an online portal for the public to report potentially unfair and anticompetitive health care practices to the FTC and the Antitrust Division of the DOJ....more
For the third time in as many months, the U.S. federal antitrust enforcement authorities -- the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice -- have filed a statement of interest in an...more
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 March 5, the FTC convened a workshop with regulators, academics and stakeholders to discuss the impact of private equity in the healthcare market. The workshop reflects the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division’s recent focus on...more
On March 5, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly issued a Request for Information on Consolidation in Health Care...more
A recent government initiative announced on March 5, 2024 signals that more antitrust scrutiny for private equity firms and asset managers is on the horizon. The U.S. antitrust agencies, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”)...more
On February 26, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued an administrative complaint and authorized a lawsuit in federal court to block Kroger Company’s proposed $24.6 billion acquisition of the Albertsons Companies,...more
On December 18, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) released final revisions to the Merger Guidelines (the “2023 Merger Guidelines”) that frame the agencies’...more
In the second installment of our “Fierce Competition” podcast, partners Ken Schwartz, Tara Reinhart and Aurora Luoma discuss issues that antitrust attorneys — on both the corporate and litigation side — encounter as antitrust...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
In late September, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In the MOU, the two agencies expressed their “good-faith intentions” to work together...more
At the end of September, the Federal Trade Commission sued a private equity firm, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, and U.S. Anesthesia Partners, Inc. (USAP), an anesthesia service provider in Texas, alleging that USAP and...more
Here are curated AG and federal regulatory news stories highlighting key areas in which state and federal regulators’ decisions are having an impact across the US: • AGs Ask Congress for Joint Effort in Making Banking...more