DOJ And FTC Guidelines Shed Light On US Deal Reviews, While attracting Criticism

MLex Market Insight

News

4.9 • 9 Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

New draft merger guidelines published by the US Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice appear designed to give the two antitrust enforcers a much-needed boost to how they tackle the review of big deals. The 13 principles outlined shed light on the departments’ thinking. However, critics say that the document’s selective use of caselaw, along with its much tighter review thresholds, is cause for concern. What’s more, it remains unclear whether the guidelines will be embraced by the courts.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, welcome back. This is M-Lex's podcast, bringing you the top stories in regulatory affairs with the assistance of our team of reporters around the world.
0:19.5	My name is James Panicki. I'm an M-Lex senior editor
0:22.7	coming to you from the LexisNexis offices in Melbourne, Australia. Now, the US's two antitrust
0:29.5	regulatory agencies have been in the news of late, in particular as a result of their increasingly
0:35.1	muscular approach to big tech.
0:38.0	And it's against this backdrop that the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice
0:42.2	have published new merger guidelines.
0:45.4	The document outlines 13 principles that the agencies will consider when reviewing transactions.
0:51.5	Of great significance for merging companies
0:54.6	are the tighter thresholds that have been put forward,
0:57.6	thresholds that appear to reflect the agency's greater determination
1:01.2	to tackle big tech.
1:03.2	Of course, it's a proposal at this stage.
1:05.5	It's open for comment, so I guess nothing is set in stone,
1:09.2	but it has already sparked quite a debate in the US.
1:13.1	To walk us through the controversy, I've assembled three members of our North American mergers team.
1:19.0	Flavia Fortes is our global head of mergers. Ben Brody is a senior M&A reporter.
1:24.6	Ilana Kowarski is also a senior M&A reporter.
1:27.6	Now, Flavia, firstly, can you tell us if there were any surprises with the new draft
1:33.2	guidelines and what's new about them?
1:35.8	Thanks, James.
1:36.5	Thanks for having me.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from MLex Market Insight, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of MLex Market Insight and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.