Ryan Thomas is a partner with Jones Day in Washington. Clients turn to Ryan Thomas for their most significant antitrust matters involving complex M&A, government investigations, counseling, and litigation. Ryan regularly appears before the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state attorneys general. He has extensive experience successfully leading cross-border matters involving enforcers in North America, Europe, and Asia.
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In Short The Background: The recent semiconductor shortage, COVID-related supply chain disruptions, and trade tensions have exposed the European Union’s ("EU") dependency on chips made in other continents. The Development: The European Commission ("EC") has proposed legislation—the EU Chips (...)
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In September 2021, the five-member Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to withdraw its support for the Vertical Merger Guidelines (“Guidelines”) and related FTC commentary on vertical merger enforcement. At the same time—indeed, only hours later on the same day—the acting head of (...)
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In Short The Background: In the Supreme Court’s landmark 2013 decision in FTC v. Actavis, the Court determined that large payments by branded drugmakers to potential generic entrants to settle patent disputes could be anticompetitive. It instructed district courts to apply the "rule of reason" (...)
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On February 4, 2021, the U.S. antitrust agencies announced that they are temporarily suspending the discretionary practice of granting early termination of the waiting period to filings made under the Hart-Scott-Rodino ("HSR") Act. Since January 16, the agencies granted ET in just one (...)
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In Short* The Development: China’s antitrust authority, the State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR"), published new rules related to antitrust merger reviews—the Interim Rules on the Review of Concentrations of Undertakings ("Interim Rules"). The Result: The most significant changes (...)
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For the first time in history, DOJ’s Antitrust Division plans to use binding arbitration to resolve an important element of a merger challenge. As part of its lawsuit to block the proposed acquisition of Aleris Corporation by Novelis Inc., the parties and DOJ agreed to resolve the issue of (...)
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In Short: The Situation: The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division ("DOJ") has provided details on the unprecedented use of arbitration to resolve its challenge to the proposed acquisition of Aleris Corporation by Novelis Inc. The Significance: Companies now have greater (...)
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The Trump Administration leadership at the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission have announced reforms regarding merger reviews. This Jones Day White Paper reviews these reforms and their strategic implications for merging parties. As described more fully below, there is (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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The Federal Trade Commission staff have completed a new study evaluating its process for designing and implementing merger remedies and the success of the remedies it has imposed in the past. Its report—"The FTC’s Merger Remedies 2006-2012: A Report of the Bureaus of Competition and (...)
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This article has been nominated for the 2016 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division will consider individual civil enforcement actions against executives implicated in corporate wrongdoing, (...)
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A plea agreement entered into last week with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) provides a sobering reminder of the serious consequence of obstruction of justice, and highlights the fact that such obstruction issues can arise even in connection with seemingly routine merger (...)
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Companies and individuals that are accused of price-fixing rarely go to trial. Indeed, in the last 10 years, no corporate defendant (and only a handful of individuals) has elected to litigate an international criminal cartel case in a U.S. court. The vast majority of cases are resolved through (...)
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Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice obtained the longest term ever imposed for a single antitrust violation. It wanted more. Peter Baci, former executive of a U.S. shipping company, was sentenced by a Florida federal district court to serve four years in jail and pay a $ 20,000 (...)
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In another reminder that U.S. antitrust enforcers can challenge mergers even after closing, and even for deals not subject to premerger notification under the HSR Act, on December 18, 2008, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit challenging the July 2008 (...)
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On November 19, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (« DOJ ») issued new guidance on its leniency program, under which cartel participants that cooperate with the government may avoid prosecution. This detailed guidance, « Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Antitrust (...)
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