Bruce McDonald

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 2019 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced product safety priorities for 2018. A key priority is for the Commission to work towards (...)

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 (...)

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a $156 million jury verdict against a U.S. Gulf Coast steel manufacturer accused of conspiring with distributors to "boycott" a new distributor by denying it access to steel. Even though the steel manufacturer was responding to pressure from (...)

The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended a significantly reduced fine for an auto parts defendant accused of bid-rigging and price-fixing, based largely on the defendant’s having quickly instituted a rigorous antitrust compliance program – even though only after the government initiated its (...)

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, (...)

The Texas Attorney General has settled its challenge to an agreement among sellers of dental supplies that, in the State’s view, prevented competition by a new entrant in Texas. This case is a reminder that even local activities may be the subject of antitrust enforcement by state attorneys (...)

The U.S. Department of Justice and the New York State Attorney General have filed an antitrust lawsuit to dissolve a joint venture between two New York City tour bus companies that effectively merged their operations and eliminated competition between them. This enforcement action demonstrates (...)

Although Section 8 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 19, which prohibits competing corporations from sharing directors or officers, is an important concern for the business community, the statute has received surprisingly little attention from government enforcers or judicial opinions in recent (...)

A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a district court decision enforcing the Federal Trade Commission’s administrative subpoena and civil investigative demand in an ongoing FTC investigation. The December 13, 2011, opinion is noteworthy (...)

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that, to allow Google’s proposed acquisition of ITA Software, DOJ and the parties have agreed to a set of requirements that will govern Google’s future operation of the ITA business. This action is notable as another challenge to a vertical merger and (...)

This article has been nominated for the 2012 Antitrust Writing Awards. Click here to learn more about the Antitrust Writing Awards. Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected an antitrust lawsuit by institutional pharmacy Omnicare that challenged premerger planning (...)

A recent court decision on alleged “signaling” of competitive plans between airlines highlights the antitrust risks of making detailed public statements about future business plans. On August 2, 2010, a federal district court in Atlanta refused to dismiss an airline passenger class action (...)

Reaching the end of a three-year investigation, today the Department of Justice Antitrust Division asked a New York federal court to approve the DOJ’s settlement of claims that KeySpan violated the antitrust laws by manipulating the NYC wholesale electricity market. The DOJ claimed KeySpan (...)

Until last week, the U.S. Department of Justice had not sought to obtain disgorgement as a remedy in a civil Sherman Act case. In the antitrust lawsuit and settlement filed on February 22 in U.S. v. KeySpan, the Antitrust Division asks that the court approve a settlement requiring the defendant (...)

On January 21, 2010, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) announced a consent agreement with Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms requiring the companies to pay $ 900,000 for violating Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) Act premerger waiting period requirements. The DOJ alleged that (...)

On October 7, 2009, Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney used a speech to the National Association of Attorneys General to reaffirm the DOJ’s commitment to a closer cooperation with the state enforcers. She also devoted a major portion of her remarks to offering a (...)

The Federal Trade Commission has issued its long-awaited rule targeting « market manipulation » in wholesale petroleum markets. With high, daily penalties, the rule is likely to cause petroleum suppliers to develop cautious compliance programs that restrict information disclosed to the market. (...)

Today the Federal Trade Commission and Whole Foods Markets settled the FTC’s challenge to Whole Foods‘ 2007 acquisition of Wild Oats Markets, which the agency alleged would lessen competition in the operation of « premium natural and organic supermarkets. » Although not an unmitigated victory for (...)

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 (...)

A federal district court has dismissed the claim that an agreement between Hewlett-Packard (HP) and its customer Staples office supply stores, under which Staples stopped selling its own ink cartridges for HP printers, was a per se illegal antitrust violation. This new decision provides a (...)

Today the Department of Justice Antitrust Division announced that it is closing its investigation of the proposed merger of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines. Among the several airlines whose possible mergers have been discussed in the last year, these two carriers had particularly little (...)