The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division unveiled fresh guidelines restricting how merger law will be enforced. This move is an attempt to modernize their approach in step with the digital age. The new regulations are conceived to provide companies and the judiciary a clear idea of how the two agencies decide if a merger is unlawful.
On Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) announced long-awaited draft guidelines to enforce merger law. The new rules apply to both vertical and horizontal mergers, replacing the flawed version of the vertical merger guidelines released in 2020. A vertical merger occurs when two businesses operating in different parts of the same industry come together, while a horizontal merger involves companies that compete or are in a similar part of the market. The agencies are attempting to keep pace with changes in the digital age and the marketplace.Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard is an example of a vertical merger; the FTC challenged the deal, arguing it was anticompetitive, but a court declined to grant the regulator's request to stop it.The agencies have laid out 13 points they will use to evaluate whether a merger should be blocked, and the new guidelines reflect their updated approach to antitrust enforcement. They address issues such as competition between multi-sided platforms like Amazon, as well as competition for workers in the case of an acquisition of partial ownership or minority interests.The public has until Sept. 18 to submit comments on the draft guidelines before the agencies consider revisions for final publication. The longevity of the new guidelines could be impacted by political power dynamics after the 2024 presidential election.
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