The global financial crisis has drastically altered the market for corporate acquisitions. With many potential buyers unable to secure funding, potential sellers now have significantly fewer options than in the past. Others have observed that merger agreements have therefore shifted from...

Antitrust enforcement officials and practitioners generally agree that customers should have a prominent role in the merger review process. The question of the appropriate level of reliance that competition authorities and courts should give to customer testimony has been the subject of...

In June 2020, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission released updated Vertical Merger Guidelines. Consistent with recent public debates on vertical merger policy, the new guidelines have been controversial, garnering both praise and criticism. Yet the development and longevity of...

Partisan splits on antitrust enforcement are not new, but some recent divides have gone beyond the usual differences between Republicans and Democrats. Today, we see disagreements among commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission on foundational aspects of competition policy, such as the goals...

Antitrust enforcement in technology industries can be challenging: historical market information may have limited relevance, market shares may be unstable, and new entrants can be highly disruptive. Both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have acknowledged the rigors of...

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) citizen petitions have received attention as a possible means of inhibiting generic pharmaceutical competition. Citizen petitions are submissions designed to alert the FDA to possible scientific and safety issues related to regulated products or agency...

In March 2009, the D.C. District Court enjoined the proposed merger between automobile insurance software system providers CCC Information Services and Mitchell International, resulting in the parties abandoning the transaction. The case marked the FTC’s first district court victory in a...

In 2010, President Obama signed into law the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, which created an abbreviated approval pathway for competing versions of previously-approved biologics. Passage of this legislation and the impending introduction of follow-on biologics, or biosimilars,...

There have been calls for the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice to consider the potential loss of consumer privacy as a factor in their merger reviews and to challenge mergers of firms with large stores of personal data that otherwise pose no competitive issues. I contend...

Under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, the FDA can require the use of risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS) over and above professional labeling, to ensure that a drug’s benefits outweigh its risks. The FTC and the generic drug industry have raised concerns...