Justice Department And Federal Trade Commission Seek Comment on Draft Merger Guidelines

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are releasing a draft update of the Merger Guidelines (Draft Guidelines), which describe and guide the agencies’ review of mergers and acquisitions to determine compliance with federal antitrust laws. The goal of this update is to better reflect how the agencies determine a merger’s effect on competition in the modern economy and evaluate proposed mergers under the law. Both agencies encourage the public to review the draft and provide feedback through a public comment period that will last 60 days. The Justice Department and FTC protect competition through enforcement of the antitrust laws and other federal competition statutes. Since 1968, the agencies have issued and revised Merger Guidelines to enhance transparency and promote awareness of how the agencies carry out that charge with respect to mergers and acquisitions. The Draft Guidelines build upon, expand, and clarify frameworks set out in previous versions. At the outset, the Guidelines give an overview of 13 principles, or “guidelines,” that the agencies may use when determining whether a merger is unlawfully anticompetitive under the antitrust laws. These guidelines are not mutually exclusive, and a given merger may implicate multiple guidelines. The document then describes in greater depth the frameworks and tools that may be used when analyzing a merger with respect to each guideline.