Articles Posted in DOJ

Introduction Under the Biden administration, U.S. antitrust agencies, particularly the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), took a hardline stance against negotiated merger remedies. Instead of settling, they often challenged mergers outright or allowed deals to close without formal conditions, expressing doubts about the effectiveness of remedies like structural…

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to challenge Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks is misguided and threatens innovation and U.S. competitiveness.  Gail Slater, the newly confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, should reconsider this decision and assess its broader implications for competition, innovation, and national interests. Facing…

McDonald’s arguments were limited because of past decision in Deslandes.  In Deslandes, the court held that the plaintiff employees plausibly alleged that the franchises’ no-poach restraints could be found unlawful under a quick-look analysis so McDonald’s did not move to dismiss for failure to state a claim.  The Northern District court rejected McDonald’s argument that the…

Employers and Human Resource personnel need a crash course in the antitrust laws and an understanding of the antitrust risks of entering into no-poach agreements. What is a no-poach agreement?  A no-poach agreement is essentially an agreement between two companies not to compete for each other’s employees, such as by not soliciting or hiring them.…

Commentators all over the spectrum have recognized antitrust is increasingly becoming a game of political football. The notion that antitrust enforcement is motivated by politics has hung over the Trump administration since the Department of Justice’s failed attempt to block AT&T’s acquisition of CNN’s owner, Time Warner and some antitrust experts might point out that…

On August 27, 2019, two U.S. senators asked the DOJ to investigate the state of competition in the ticketing business, and to extend the DOJ’s consent agreement with Live Nation Entertainment (“Live Nation”), the industry giant that owns Ticketmaster. Background In a letter to Makan Delrahim, the head of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, Senators Richard…

On August 20, 2019, the DOJ filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware seeking to block Sabre Corporation’s (“Sabre”) $360 million acquisition of Farelogix, Inc. (“Farelogix”). Complaint The DOJ alleges that Sabre and Farelogix compete head-to-head to provide booking services to airlines.  Booking services are IT solutions…

On August 20, 2019, it was reported that the states are set to join forces to investigate Big Tech. On the same day, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) said the DOJ is working with a group of more than a dozen state attorneys general…

On June 10, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division filed a complaint and reached a settlement with Canon and Toshiba for violating the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act during Canon’s acquisition of a Toshiba subsidiary. The HSR Act requires companies to notify the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of certain mergers and…

The government shutdown is likely to delay FTC merger reviews, but the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Second Request investigations will likely proceed as they normally do albeit with less staff.  Although the FTC’s Premerger Notification Office (PNO) and the DOJ’s Premerger Office remain open during regular hours to receive HSR filings, the FTC PNO will…