Michael H. Knight

This week, the Federal Trade Commission announced its 2020 adjustments to the Hart-Scott-Rodino ("HSR") Act thresholds. These thresholds determine which mergers and acquisitions must be reported to the federal government before consummation. The new thresholds take effect on February 27, and (...)

The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") announced changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino ("HSR") Premerger Notification Rules relating to Item 5 of the HSR Form that take effect starting September 25, 2019. Item 5 currently requires filers to report relevant U.S. revenues categorized using the U.S. (...)

In Short The Situation: The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the FTC could not recover past profits under FTC Act Section 13(b) if the alleged violation occurred in the past and the defendant was not "violating" or "about to violate" the law. The Impact: The (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. Court Rejects DOJ Antitrust Challenge to AT&T/Time Warner* After eighteen months of investigation and litigation, a federal district court has rejected the (...)

In Short The Situation: The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") recently published a blog post reminding merging parties to avoid creating antitrust liability through the exchange of competitively sensitive information during merger negotiations and due diligence. The Risk: Information-sharing (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. One important procedural difference between merger challenges by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission is that FTC may challenge a (...)

The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") has released a draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2014-2018 (the "2014 Plan"). Despite the ambitious title, the 2014 Plan actually focuses on a small number of procedural issues. It provides no indication of the FTC’s likely substantive agenda or (...)

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted to issue a proposed rulemaking amending the rules governing Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) filings made by parties to a proposed merger. The amendments would (1) codify the informal "pull and refile" process and (2) mandate automatic withdrawal of (...)

With the Supreme Court set to address the validity of "reverse payment" settlements of pharmaceutical patent litigation, the FTC released a summary of its new report, announcing that in 2012 drug companies entered "a record number" of such settlements. However, the underlying data and analysis (...)

The Federal Trade Commission has filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to undo Laboratory Corporation of America’s (« LabCorp ») acquisition of Westcliff Medical Laboratories, Inc. (« Westcliff »). According to the agency’s December 1 complaint, the merger will substantially lessen competition (...)

In a rare court decision on the enforceability of agency subpoenas, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (« FTC ») is entitled to receive documents from the Canadian subsidiary of Church & Dwight Co. (« C&D ») relating to the sale (...)

In a decision that was filed under seal in late August but released publicly just last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota dismissed with prejudice the complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the State of Minnesota challenging the already-consummated (...)

Last week the Federal Trade Commission ruled that a Michigan realtors’ group violated federal antitrust law by limiting the publication of certain types of real estate listings within its Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and publicly accessible real estate web sites. Reversing a 2007 ruling by an (...)