Antitrust Enforcement Agencies Propose Revised Horizontal Merger Guidelines

On April 20, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released for public comment a proposed updated version of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines ("Guidelines"), which explain how the FTC and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (collectively, the "Agencies") evaluate the impact on competition of a proposed merger when determining whether to challenge the merger under U.S. antitrust law. The Guidelines "are intended to assist the business community and antitrust practitioners by increasing the transparency of the analytical process underlying the Agencies' enforcement decisions" and "may also assist the courts in developing an appropriate framework for interpreting and applying the antitrust laws in the horizontal merger context." The current version of the Guidelines was issued in 1992, with minor revisions in 1997.