Chuck Loughlin, former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chief Trial Counsel, is a partner in the Antitrust, Competition, and Economic Regulation group of Hogan Lovells and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Chuck has more than 25 years in both public service and private practice, with experience in multiple industrial sectors, including financial, pharmaceutical, and technology, enabling him to help companies navigate competition and antitrust issues across the United States. Chuck handled some of the most significant antitrust matters to come before the FTC and was awarded the FTC’s Award for Distinguished Service. He led the Impax Labs trial, co-led the Staples/Office Depot merger trial, and supervised the Tronox/Cristal merger trial and the 1-800 Contacts non-merger trial. While in private practice, Chuck was involved in the first trial of an antitrust challenge to so-called "reverse payment" patent settlements.
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On September 5, 2023 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) (the Agencies) hosted the first of three planned workshops intended to “facilitate public dialogue” on the 2023 FTC and DOJ Draft Merger Guidelines (the draft guidelines). The Agencies published the draft (...)
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On July 19, 2023 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) (“the agencies”) released their 2023 Draft Merger Guidelines (the “2023 draft guidelines” or the “revised guidelines”). The publication of the revised guidelines—currently available for public comment until (...)
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On July 19, 2023 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) (“the agencies”) released their 2023 Draft Merger Guidelines (the “2023 draft guidelines” or the “revised guidelines”). The publication of the revised guidelines—currently available for public comment until (...)
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On July 14, 2023 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it is withdrawing two antitrust policy statements related to antitrust enforcement in health care markets (the policy statements). Specifically, the FTC is withdrawing “safe harbors” for healthcare provider mergers, joint (...)
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On June 15, 2023 the US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Competition (the Bureau) issued a statement outlining its view that the enforcement of certain contract terms “can impede the Bureau’s law enforcement investigations of potentially harmful mergers and conduct” and are therefore (...)
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On 5 January 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the Non-Compete Clause Rule. The proposed rule, if adopted, would effectively ban the use of non-competes with employees by making the use of such non-competes a violation of Section 5 of (...)
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The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) January 5, 2023 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the Non-Compete Clause Rule, which would ban nearly all post-employment non-competes, signals a possible sea-change for employers across industries. Significantly, however, non-profit (...)
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On 10 November 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) issued a Policy Statement (the Policy Statement) outlining a significant expansion of its mandate to target “unfair methods of competition” under Section 5 of the FTC Act (Section 5). In a concurrently published statement, (...)
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On 26 August 2022 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continued its recent trend of expanding its ability to initiate new investigations, announcing that it approved omnibus resolutions that will allow the agency to automatically seek compulsory process in: (1) investigations related to (...)
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On 18 January 2022 the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held a press conference to announce a joint effort to modernize the horizontal and vertical federal merger guidelines “to better detect and prevent illegal, anticompetitive deals in today’s modern markets.” (...)
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On 25 October, the FTC released a Statement on the Use of Prior Approval Provisions in Merger Orders (Prior Approval Statement) making clear that the agency intends to include in all divestiture orders a requirement that the merging parties obtain prior approval from the FTC before closing any (...)
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On 15 September 2021 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) held its third open meeting under the leadership of Chair Lina Khan. As expected, the Commissioners voted along party lines to rescind the Vertical Merger Guidelines (2020 VMGs) that were jointly issued by the FTC and Department of (...)
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On 15 September 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published findings from its retrospective study of the non-reported acquisitions by five large technology companies from 2010-2019 (the Report). Focusing on 616 transactions valued at above US$1 million, the Commissioners noted four key (...)
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On 9 July 2021 President Biden signed a far-reaching executive order intended to promote competition in the American economy. The order targets perceived corporate consolidation and anticompetitive activity in the labor, financial services, health care, transportation, telecommunications, (...)
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On 22 December 2020, on a divided vote, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or the Commission) issued a Commentary on Vertical Merger Enforcement (FTC Commentary) to provide “greater transparency to the public regarding its analysis of vertical mergers.” Following the FTC and Department of (...)
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On 30 June 2020 the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (the agencies, collectively) announced the publication of new vertical merger guidelines (the new vertical guidelines or the 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines). The new vertical guidelines describe how the (...)
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On 16 June 2020, the former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods LLC was sentenced to 40 months in prison and fined US$100,000 for his role in a tuna price-fixing conspiracy involving two competitors. This sentence is one of the most significant penalties ever imposed on a corporate executive in a criminal (...)
