Publications

April 22, 2010

U.S. Antitrust Agencies Propose Revisions to Merger Guidelines

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On April 20, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission released for public comment a proposed revision of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines. The Guidelines, developed jointly by the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (and last revised in 1997), outline the policies and practices used by the enforcement agencies in evaluating mergers of actual or potential competitors under the antitrust laws. The newly proposed revisions to the Guidelines contain several significant changes, including: updated market concentration thresholds; new discussions of the evidence that enforcement agencies consider in analyzing mergers and the economic and other types of analysis they apply; a new explanation of the role of innovation in merger enforcement, which may be of particular interest to businesses in technology-based industries; new guidance with respect to mergers of competing buyers; and a new section addressing partial acquisitions, which may impact private equity firms, among others.