The US FTC and DOJ propose new merger guidelines

Proposed FTC and DOJ Merger Guidelines Formalize Biden Administration’s Aggressive Vision for Merger Enforcement – Top Ten Takeaways When losing, some players seek to change the rules. Others seek to change the playing field. On July 19, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (collectively, the “Agencies”) released much-anticipated proposed Merger Guidelines (the “Proposed Guidelines”), [1] which, once finalized, will replace the Agencies’ 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the previously withdrawn 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines. While prior merger guidelines generally represented consensus among lawyers and economists across administrations, the aggressive approach taken in the Proposed Guidelines risks undermining the credibility and persuasiveness of