AAG Kanter Announces Changes To Key Antitrust Enforcement Areas

Speaking yesterday at the joint Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission "Enforcers Summit," Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Jonathan Kanter announced changes to key areas of the Antitrust Division's (Division) enforcement policies.

First, in keeping with recent announcements, AAG Kanter reinforced the Division's goal to renew criminal enforcement for Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolization, attempts to monopolize, and conspiracies to monopolize. As we discussed last month, in order to provide transparency to the public, DOJ's revival of Section 2 criminal enforcement must be coupled with updates to its written policy documents, such as the Justice Manual, which now has been updated to state expressly that the Division "may also bring, and has brought, criminal charges under Section 2." We expect the Division also will update its Division Manual to provide more clarity with regard to these policy changes, and may