Global antitrust issues face scrutiny at ABA conference in the US

MLex Market Insight

News

4.9 • 9 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

For antitrust enforcers wanting to get a message out to the world, the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Spring Meeting is a time to shine. This year was no exception — in fact, with Covid-related travel restrictions now a thing of the past, attendance at the Washington DC even was up. US federal and state enforcers were there to remind the antitrust community that they’re nobody’s concierge — with both civil and criminal enforcement now on the cards. Senior European regulators were also out in force at the ABA, with discussion about the UK’s merger reviews and the European Commission’s decision to examine its policy framework on how it applies dominance rules. MLex’s reporters were at the event, keeping an eye out for the trends and an ear to the ground for all of the latest antitrust gossip.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to a special edition of the MLEX podcast coming to you from Washington, D.C.
0:19.1	My name is Lewis Crofts. I'm the editor at large here at MLEX, and we've just completed the ABA Week, the Washington
0:25.8	Week, where the antitrust community has come together for drinks parties and a little bit
0:31.1	of chat about the law.
0:32.9	And I've got with me, Krishita Bassant, Chief Correspondent Trust in the US.
0:38.9	And we're going to be talking about a couple of things that we've heard this week.
0:42.3	They've caught our eye.
0:43.7	And the ABA week is really the week where if you're an enforcer and you want to get a message
0:48.3	out, this is your time.
0:50.2	This is your forum.
0:51.2	The world is listening.
0:52.4	Sometimes, you know, admittedly, we've got lots of reporters here and some of the things that we hear are not so new, but this is the moment where you say what you need to say. So, Koshita, what did you hear? What about the big themes that you heard from these few days?
1:06.1	Thanks, Lewis. So actually, a little bit of scene setting first. I should note this is this feels like the first
1:12.2	normal ABA antitrust spring meeting after three years of COVID. We had 3,300 people here.
1:19.4	It was mad. And that's 500 more than last year. So as to the themes this year, U.S. Federal Enforcers,
1:26.2	which is the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal
1:29.1	Trade Commission, and then state enforcers, the 50 state AGs, many of whom were here this week,
1:35.8	made sure that they reminded the antitrust community that they're going to be tough on civil
1:42.1	conduct cases, on criminal cases, as well as on mergers.
1:48.1	Last year, we heard some language like, you know, enforcers are not here to provide concierge
1:53.2	services for law firms and for companies.
1:57.2	This year, we saw a continuation of that messaging, but there was also a lot of update on the kind of progress.
	...

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