The Legal Intelligencer
Monday, May 6, 2013
Compliance with antitrust laws was never a pressing issue for private equity firms. Antitrust compliance briefly came to the forefront of the industry in 2007, when the U.S. Department of Justice briefly investigated the industry and a series of private lawsuits were filed against private equity firms.
The Legal Intelligencer
Monday, April 29, 2013
Criminal prosecutions took to the superhighway during the 1980s with road construction bid-rigging indictments. Road contractors nationwide had been regularly rigging bids to state highway departments.
The Legal Intelligencer
Monday, April 1, 2013
March marked the end of the first quarter of President Obama's second term, and he has yet to select a nominee for the fifth and final commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission seat.
The Legal Intelligencer
Friday, March 29, 2013
The Philadelphia Field Office (PFO) of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, was established in 1948 by legendary trustbuster Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thurman Arnold.
The Legal Intelligencer
Monday, March 4, 2013
On February 19, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major antitrust decision limiting antitrust immunity for state-sanctioned conduct. The court unanimously overturned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit's ruling allowing Phoebe Putney Health System Inc. to acquire its only competitor. The Eleventh Circuit had previously stated the acquisition was permissible under the state-action doctrine. In its opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that the granting of mere general corporate powers to government entities under state law does not offer blanket protection from the antitrust laws. The Supreme Court emphasized that immunity from the antitrust laws is "disfavored" unless a state intended to displace competition. In so ruling, the Supreme Court has further limited the ability of health care and other entities to rely upon the state-action immunity doctrine to avoid antitrust entanglement.
The Legal Intelligencer
Monday, February 4, 2013
The coming year is poised to be a critical and exciting year for antitrust law. The U.S. Supreme Court is due to rule on no less than four antitrust cases this year. Government enforcement continues to be on the rise and private litigation is surging again.
The Legal Intelligencer
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
On December 31, 2012, amid fiscal cliff talks, the U.S. Senate confirmed William J. Baer as the U.S. Department of Justice's assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division by a vote of 64-26.
The Legal Intelligencer
Monday, December 3, 2012
This year was an active year in antitrust, particularly for the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has aggressively pursued antitrust activity in the health care industry; challenged reportable and nonreportable transactions at a staggering rate; indicated a new desire to seek disgorgement of profits and restitution damages in all their investigations; and seen their full-steam-ahead strategy for increased authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act challenged by many in Congress and yet to see any blessing by the courts. 2012 was a busy year for the FTC in antitrust, and with the re-election of President Obama, their aggressive antitrust enforcement appears poised to continue through 2013.
The Legal Intelligencer
Monday, October 1, 2012
As President Obama and Mitt Romney refine their stump speeches and debate their visions for America's future, antitrust lawyers and corporate executives will and should consider the antitrust policies and agendas of the two presidential candidates.
The Legal Intelligencer
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
The Federal Trade Commission recently fired a warning shot to companies facing antitrust scrutiny by withdrawing its Policy Statement on Monetary Equitable Remedies in Competition Cases. Many had previously interpreted the policy statement, issued in 2003, as limiting the FTC's use of monetary equitable remedies, including disgorgement of profits, to only "exceptional cases" involving "clear" antitrust violations and where "remedies in other civil or criminal litigation was likely to accomplish the purposes of the antitrust laws."