2018 Antitrust Outlook – Another Year Of Uncertainty

The antitrust outlook in the United States in 2018 continues to present uncertainty. Below, we look to identify some sources of that uncertainty and offer some predictions for industries, including the auto industry, for the year ahead.

Trump Administration Signals New DOJ Directions

Historically, U.S. antitrust enforcement has been marked more by continuity than abrupt change. During the past few decades we saw an evolution away from blanket rules of per se legality or illegality (e.g., resale price maintenance and inflexible merger standards), a greater emphasis on economic analysis of likely competitive effects, and an attempt to strike a balance between overly aggressive enforcement (which inhibits potentially procompetitive conduct benefiting consumer welfare) and overly lenient enforcement (which risks unacceptable competitive/consumer welfare consequences).