The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing to block the proposed $24.6 billion merger between supermarket giants Kroger and ACI, the parent company of Albertsons and Safeway, among other brands. The FTC has initiated two...more
On February 26, 2024, after a 16-month investigation, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued The Kroger Company and Albertsons Companies, Inc. in the U.S. District Court of Oregon to try to block their $24.6 billion merger....more
On January 15, Washington Attorney General (AG) Bob Ferguson filed a complaint in King County Superior Court, seeking to block the merger of The Kroger Co. (Kroger) with its supermarket competitor, Albertsons Companies, Inc....more
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Lina Khan defended the agency’s merger enforcement record while responding to an inquiry from a member of Congress in a November 3, 2023, letter....more
Less than two months ago, the FTC faced at least five separate lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the agency in response to antitrust actions. Last week, three of those have been settled or dismissed, and a fourth...more
EU Parliament and Council reach agreement on CSRD - European Parliament and European Council | 21 June 2022 - The European Parliament and European Council reached a provisional political agreement on the terms of the...more
On July 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion for an emergency preliminary injunction to abrogate Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation's (Booz Allen's) merger agreement with EverWatch Corp....more
On the heels of two successful hospital merger challenges in the last year, the FTC announced on Thursday that it is bringing two new cases seeking to block proposed hospital transactions: RWJBarnabas Health’s (RWJ’s)...more
The proposed merger of Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has been terminated....more
While the Delta variant threatens Disney’s big theme park reopenings (and its recent return to profit in that sector after a year in the red), Big Mouse’s streaming service continues to deliver. Disney+ wrapped its fiscal Q3...more
Already burgeoning, foreign direct investment regulations worldwide are bulking up still more in response to emerging threats. Over the past few years, countries around the globe have started to either implement or ratchet...more
The EU General Court ruled that the Commission must demonstrate with a "strong probability" that the effect on competition is "significant" to block a merger that does not create a dominant company. In a rare judgment, the...more
In this month's edition of our Privacy & Cybersecurity Update, we examine the Seventh Circuit's ruling finding standing for an Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act claim, the European Data Protection Board's updated...more
Four years after the European Commission (“EC”) thwarted Hutchison’s attempt to consolidate the UK mobile telecoms market through its planned acquisition of O2, the General Court yesterday dealt a crushing blow to the...more
Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been a growing and global trend of established Western economies increasingly scrutinising foreign investment in key sectors. FDI restrictions have been on the...more
On April 8, 2020, Judge Leonard Stark of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware denied an injunction requested by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to block Sabre Corp.’s $360...more
DOJ Antitrust Division successfully uses private-style arbitration for first time to block a merger, and force a divestiture as a condition to closing.1 DOJ’s novel use of arbitration to resolve liability in a merger case has...more
President Donald Trump announced that he intends to invoke the Defense Production Act of 1950 (DPA) in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The DPA grants the executive branch of the federal government broad...more
For an entity that has historically placed an emphasis on maintaining the secrecy of its proceedings, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS, or the Committee) has recently attracted quite a few...more
The regulations implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), which significantly expanded the jurisdiction and authorities of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States...more
Schick, the shaving product company, recently announced it was abandoning its proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of rival startup Harry’s Razors. The announcement followed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) threat to...more
A recent decision by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), Tobii AB (publ) v. Competition and Markets Authority, confirms a deferential standard for the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in its merger...more
Fast Facts - United States - - The DOJ and FTC concluded 26 significant U.S. merger investigations in 2019 – similar to the level of activity from 2011-2014 under the Obama administration but trailing the activity...more
Fast Facts - United States - - The Trump administration’s efforts to block mergers near record, with 5 significant investigations resulting in complaints in 2019 YTD. - The number of significant antitrust merger...more
The Situation:The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") has sued to block a proposed acquisition of Aleris Corporation by Novelis Inc. In an unprecedented move, the parties and DOJ agreed to refer the "dispositive" issue of...more