In September 2014, Chairwoman Edith Ramirez of the Federal Trade Commission championed a fresh study of merger remedies to update the commission’s “very useful” review of divestitures undertaken in the late 1990s.1 On Jan. 9, 2015, the commission made good on Ramirez’s suggestion by releasing a new proposal for the retrospective study of merger remedy orders from 2006 to 2012.2
As Ramirez and antitrust scholars have noted,3 retrospective studies of merger remedies inform and shape the development of competition policy. These studies provide a wealth of information to the conducting agency, but also give businesses the crucial opportunity to interact informally with agencies as the agencies look to identify the market trends that will inform future policy. Many businesses willingly participated in the commission’s 1990s study and, as a result helped, shape the commission’s reassessment of its divestiture process. Companies have that same opportunity once again.
