Last year we noted that U.S. antitrust enforcement was in a period of nearly unprecedented public attention and policy debate, and also that the Biden Administration seemed likely to launch significant new policy initiatives as the year progressed.
Third Circuit Affirms Court Decision and FTC Effort to Block Hospital Merger
On March 22, 2022, the Third Circuit upheld a district court decision granting a preliminary injunction against Hackensack Meridian Health’s plan to acquire Englewood Healthcare, pending the outcome of an administrative trial by the Federal Trade Commission.
U.S. & EU Antitrust: Developments and Outlook in 2022
In the 2021 edition of this memo, we wrote that antitrust in 2020 received more political and media attention than at any recent time. 2021 beat that standard in multiple ways, and 2022 looks to continue that trend. In addition to continuing the major tech cases brought under the Trump administration, 2021 saw unprecedented levels of legislative activity in antitrust (both federal and state), competition policy taking a leading position across federal agencies and startling new approaches at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in particular – new approaches that, while they haven’t yet produced a wave of new enforcement actions, have required changes in thinking about and approaching antitrust issues. We expect these trends to accelerate in 2022.
Self-Preferencing and Antitrust: Harmful Solutions for an Improbable Problem
Cleary Gottlieb partner Bruce Hoffman and associate Garrett Shinn co-authored, “Self-Preferencing and Antitrust: Harmful Solutions for an Improbable Problem.”