Cooperation Or Collusion? FTC Defends Interagency Contacts

Does interaction between the Federal Trade Commission and other antitrust enforcers around the world benefit merging parties, or does it help the agency bypass U.S. courts potentially unsympathetic to the agency's expansive theories of harm? That is the ongoing debate between the FTC and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the Illumina-Grail merger saga.

There is a ton of interagency communication today. As antitrust enforcement regimes have burgeoned over the last 20 years, enforcers have increasingly come together to share best practices, as well as share information on specific cases. To give an indication of how much the regulatory world has changed, the International Competition Network, an institution designed to facilitate interactions between competition authorities worldwide, was established in 2001 with authorities from 14 jurisdictions. Today, the ICN has 140 member authorities from 129 jurisdictions.