Antitrust Today

Antitrust Enforcers Are Continuing to Plow the Fields of Agriculture

The Biden administration is carrying through on its commitment—which we previously  analyzed in Antitrust Today—to beef up antitrust enforcement in the agriculture industry in an attempt to increase competition and address rising food prices. While some are debating whether increased antitrust enforcement will help reduce prices, activity by the Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) and the Department of...

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following. U.S. antitrust enforcers plan to toughen merger guidelines.  U.S. antitrust enforcers announced plans to rewrite merger guidelines in order to better fight illegal deals. The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission issued a joint statement saying U.S. industries had become increasingly...

Merger Enforcement is Picking Up as DOJ and FTC Solicit Comments on Updating Merger Review Guidelines – Start Sharpening Your Pencils.

Anyone interested in the current antitrust revival will have an opportunity to voice his or her views as to how to improve antitrust enforcement aimed at anticompetitive mergers. Even non-attorneys are likely to have noticed the increased focus on antitrust enforcement in the United States targeting mergers through government reviews and litigated challenges.  From books to  computing technology, from beer to

FTC’s Antitrust Suit Against Facebook Survives Motion to Dismiss

On January 11, 2022, the U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg denied Facebook’s motion to dismiss the FTC’s Amended Complaint which alleges that Facebook maintained a monopoly in personal social service network market in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. While the FTC won this particular battle, it will now need to prove its allegations through expert testimony and statistical analysis. Judge...

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following. White House encouraged by rejection of Facebook request to dismiss antitrust lawsuit.  The White House said it was encouraged by a U.S. judge's decision not to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. "Certainly we are encouraged by the district court's decision", White...

Elite Universities Face Price-Fixing Allegations

A potential class of more than 170,000 former students that received financial aid to attend 16 of the top universities in the United States may be entitled to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, according to a complaint recently filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The plaintiffs allege that these private, national universities, which rank in the top 25 of U.S. News &...

Will the Next Chapter in DOJ’s Showdown With Book Publishers Rewrite the Book on Antitrust Merger Enforcement?

Federal antitrust enforcers hope to write a new chapter on merger enforcement this year as they face off against leading publishers. One of the major antitrust developments last year was the United States Department of Justice’s (DOJ) challenge of the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, alleging that the large publishers’ combined monopsony power would harm competition in the publishing...

UPDATE: New York’s Groundbreaking Antitrust Bill Is Reported Out of Committee and Advances to the Senate Floor Calendar

New York took a step closer to launching an antitrust revival in the state today as the New York Senate Consumer Protection Committee voted to send S933A—a groundbreaking antitrust bill that would fundamentally reshape antitrust law and enforcement in the Empire State—to the full Senate floor calendar. As this blog previously reported, although New York’s Twenty-First Century Antitrust Act passed the Senate...

New York’s Groundbreaking Antitrust Bill Is Back on the Agenda for the New Legislative Session

New Yorkers backing a broad revision of the Donnelly Act have hopes that the new legislative session will usher in an antitrust revival in the state. With the opening of New York’s 2022 legislative session on January 5, an early order of business will be consideration of bills that did not become law during the 2021 session.  One major piece of unfinished business will be tackled with committee consideration of...

The Antitrust Week In Review

Here are some of the developments in antitrust news this past week that we found interesting and are following.

Biden unveils plan to boost competition in U.S. meat industry.  President Biden has announced that the United States will issue new rules and $1 billion in funding this year to support independent meat processors and ranchers as part of a plan to address a lack of “meaningful competition” in the meat...