After a slow start in getting Senate-confirmed appointees in
place, both the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and
Federal Trade Commission finally got their full complement of
senior leadership in place in September 2018. Chairman Joe Simons
and Commissioner Christine Wilson returned to the FTC as
commissioners after years of private practice, and other major
Commission roles have been filled by FTC alumni. Similarly, the
Antitrust Division leadership has a number of attorneys with prior
government experience.
This seasoned leadership, however, has not made antitrust
enforcement more predictable. This uncertainty is even more
pronounced in "vertical" deals involving companies that
are at different levels of the supply chain. Both FTC and DOJ spoke
out early in the Trump administration against behavioral remedies
which have been used in the past to mitigate risk of harm to
competition from vertical deals.1
