Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On October 26, 2016, the DOJ announced that it will require Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (“Wabtec”) to divest Faiveley Transport North America’s (“Faiveley”) entire U.S. freight car brakes business in order for Wabtec to proceed with its proposed approximately $1.8 billion acquisition of Faiveley Transport S.A. and Faiveley Transport North America. The acquisition as…

On August 31, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to block Deere & Company’s (“Deere”) proposed $190 million acquisition of Precision Planting LLC (“Precision Planting”) from Monsanto Company in order to preserve competition in the market for high-speed precision planting…

On August 26, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) approved final amendments to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Premerger Notification Rules that allow HSR filings to be submitted on DVD and streamline the instructions to the Premerger Notification Form.  These updates will make the process of submitting HSR filings easier, more efficient and less burdensome. The HSR Act…

On August 25, 2016, the FTC announced that ON Semiconductor Corporation (“ON”) agreed to sell its Ignition Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (“IGBT”) business in order to settle FTC allegations that its proposed $2.4 billion acquisition of Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. (“Fairchild”) is anticompetitive. According to the complaint, the merged company would have a combined share of…

On August 23, 2016, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley announced a hearing on the increasing consolidation within the seed and chemical industry. The hearing will be held in late September.  Senator Grassley said that “The seed and chemical industries are critical to agriculture and the nation’s economy, and Iowans are concerned that this sudden…

On August 16, 2016, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez and DOJ Antitrust Division Head, Renata Hesse in which he expressed concerns regarding two major mergers in agricultural technology and seeds that could potentially hurt competition in the industry and make it harder…

On Monday, August 1, 2016, five retail pharmacies filed a class action lawsuit against Express Scripts Inc., alleging that Express Scripts usurped patient prescription data gained from independent pharmacies through its pharmacy benefit management business to divert sales to its competing mail-order pharmacy.  According to the complaint, Express Scripts used the customer information provided to…

On July 27, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) cleared to generic pharmaceutical deals. Mylan/Meda Deal Mylan, N.V. agreed to divest the rights and assets related to two generic products to settle allegations that its proposed $7.2 billion acquisition of Meda AB would be anticompetitive.  Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Alvogen Pharma US,…

On July 21, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and several state attorneys general filed two lawsuits, challenging two major health insurer mergers: (1) Anthem, Inc.’s (“Anthem”) proposed $48.4 billion purchase of Cigna Corporation (“Cigna”) and (2) Aetna Inc.’s (“Aetna”) planned $37 billion acquisition of Humana Inc. (“Humana”). While the cases are substantially different, both…

Antitrust enforcement has become front and center in the American political economic debate.  The Democratic Platform included a plank for greater antitrust enforcement for the first time since 1968.  There is increasing evidence that large mega-mergers have cost consumers dearly in the pocket book, increased economic inequality and dampened economic opportunity.  In a recent speech…