The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") unanimously issued a final rule expanding the requirements of premerger filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements ("HSR") Act of 1976. The HSR Act requires parties to...more
On September 17, 2024, the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) announced that it withdrew its 1995 Bank Merger Guidelines and instead, for purposes of evaluating the competitive impact of...more
The Situation: To address a perceived enforcement gap, the European Commission ("EC") has issued guidelines expanding the types of non-reportable transactions subject to its "upward referral mechanism," which permits EU...more
There are five crucial areas of focus that will impact mergers, acquisitions and corporate governance going forward: New Hart Scott Rodino (HSR) rules are expected in weeks, not months....more
Last week, a Mayer Brown team joined over 4,000 lawyers from around the globe—including top enforcers from the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), Department of Justice (“DOJ”), and the European Union (“EU”)—to discuss new...more
In this article from The Threshold, the authors recap a panel on theories of labor harm in mergers, sponsored by the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law....more
In fiscal year 2022, merger transactions and second requests decreased from the prior year....more
The European Commission’s (“Commission”) substantially revised Market Definition Notice (“Revised Notice”) will make it significantly easier for it to allege that mergers and other transactions (“mergers”) are likely to...more
The Canadian government has increased the monetary thresholds to determine whether a net benefit review of a foreign investment in Canada is required under the Investment Canada Act for 2024. All acquisitions of control of...more
China doubled its merger notification thresholds effective on January 26, 2024. China's State Council recently published new merger control notification thresholds doubling the previous China revenue thresholds in an...more
1 Relevant Authorities and Legislation - 1.1 Who is/are the relevant merger authority(ies)? If relevant, please include details of: (i) independence from government; (ii) who the senior decision-makers are (e.g. Chair,...more
The Federal Court of Appeal’s recent decision upholding the Commissioner of Competition’s largely successful challenge of Secure Energy Services Inc.’s acquisition of Tervita Corporation provides further evidence that the...more
On July 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division announced sweeping changes to how they review deals. The agencies published new “Merger Guidelines” that identify the competition...more
Proposing a radically different conception of government enforcement merger guidelines, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), on July 19, 2023, jointly issued draft merger guidelines...more
The Hart Scott Rodino Act (HSR Act) is a federal law that requires companies planning to merge or acquire certain assets or voting securities to notify the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ)...more
Relevant Authorities and Legislation - 1.1 - Who is/are the relevant merger authority(ies)? The Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) is an independent, federal law enforcement agency responsible for the administration...more
A Q&A guide to merger control in Canada. This Q&A is part of the global guide to merger control. Areas covered include the regulatory framework, regulatory authorities, relevant triggering events and thresholds. Also...more
The Boiling Points collection features real-world documents that government antitrust agencies used against merging companies. Dechert’s antitrust/competition practice curated the collection from an exhaustive review of...more
In both our DAMITT 2021 Report and our Q1 2022 Report, we warned that parties to transactions subject to significant merger investigations were more likely to see the FTC or DOJ sue to block their deal or push them to abandon...more
In a recent high-profile judgment, the EU’s General Court confirmed that the European Commission (“EC”) can, upon referral by a national competition authority in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), review deals that do not...more
In late June 2022, the 13th National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted the First Amendments to China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (“AML”). The amendments will take effect on August 1, 2022. Although the First Amendments to...more
In the U.S., “significant” merger investigations include Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act reportable transactions for which the result of the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Antitrust Division of the...more
United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and United States Representative Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) on March 16, 2022 introduced the Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act (the “Act”) to ban what they’ve called “the...more
Despite an increase in gross domestic product in 2021, the Canadian government has left the threshold for pre-merger notification under the Competition Act unchanged for 2022 at C$93 million in Canadian assets or revenues....more
1. Relevant Authorities and Legislation - 1.1. Who is/are the relevant merger authority(ies)? The Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) is an independent, federal law enforcement agency responsible for the administration...more