Publication
Distress signals: Cooperation agreements or mergers to the rescue in times of crisis?
The current volatile and unpredictable economic climate creates challenges for businesses.
Author:
Global | Publication | July 2023
On July 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) (together, Agencies) published for public comment the draft of their updated Merger Guidelines (Guidelines). The new Guidelines closely describe current Agency practice including novel theories of harm that the Agencies have advanced in investigations and in courts under the current administration.
The Guidelines amend, replace and consolidate the Horizontal Merger Guidelines published in 2010 and the Vertical Merger Guidelines published in 2020. The Guidelines and their predecessors are not legally binding but historically provided some predictability to the private bar and merging parties when evaluating the antitrust risk of proposed transactions.
The new Guidelines place an emphasis on transactions that tend to create a monopoly, advance new theories of harm relating to competition in labor markets and codify aggressive new thresholds for what transactions the Agencies view as presumptively illegal.
The new Merger Guidelines are subject to a 60-day public comment period, closing on September 18, 2023.
We continue to analyze the proposed Guidelines and are happy to discuss their impact on your business. Specifically, we are evaluating the potential impact of these on certain industries. If you would like to be notified of our future commentary on the proposed guidelines, please click here to choose from a list of subject matter areas.
Please join us for a Competitive edge: Quick take webinar on the New Merger Guidelines on Tuesday, August 1, at 11:00 am Eastern.
Publication
The current volatile and unpredictable economic climate creates challenges for businesses.
Publication
On April 17, the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) released its Notice of Action and Proposed Action in Section 301 Investigation of China’s Targeting the Maritime, Logistics and Shipbuilding Sectors for Dominance, Request for Comments (the Notice).
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