On December 18, 2023, The Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice concluded a nearly two-year process of updating both the horizontal and vertical merger guidelines with the release of the...more
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division and Federal Trade Commission issued new draft Merger Guidelines on July 19 that aim to significantly increase scrutiny of merger activity. The new Merger Guidelines would replace...more
2022 saw a major uptick in antitrust scrutiny and enforcement, primarily related to vertical transactions by large technology companies. Meta/Within, Microsoft/Activision, and Broadcom/VMware (among others) faced resistance...more
On September 3, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) updated its Merger Remedies Manual (“the Manual”). This is the first update of the Manual since 2011, and it reinforces DOJ’s commitment to effective structural...more
On June 30, 2020, the Department of Justice and a split Federal Trade Commission released the final version of their new Vertical Merger Guidelines, which outline how the federal antitrust agencies evaluate the competitive...more
As anticipated, on January 10, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (collectively, the Agencies) released Draft Vertical Merger Guidelines (Draft Guidelines), marking the first update...more
The fact that a merger might be anticompetitive is not a reason to prohibit a transaction if all of the elements of the “failing firm defense” are met, as described below. In fact, the antitrust agencies have long recognized...more
In this episode, Akin Gump antitrust partners Gorav Jindal and Corey Roush discuss antitrust developments in 2018 and look at what 2019 may bring. Among the topics covered: • antitrust under the Trump administration • major...more
The use of efficiencies as a defense remains without a firm footing in law when a transaction has demonstrable and substantial anticompetitive effects. In Rob Reiner’s classic fantasy adventure The Princess Bride,...more
The Federal Trade Commission staff have completed a new study evaluating its process for designing and implementing merger remedies and the success of the remedies it has imposed in the past. Its report—"The FTC's Merger...more