On September 4, 2019, Judge Richard Leon of the US District
Court of the District of Columbia granted the Department of
Justice's (DOJ) motion to enter its Proposed Final Judgment
approving the CVS-Aetna merger. The proposed settlement, first
filed with the court in October 2018, attracted significant
judicial scrutiny under the Tunney Act, which requires judicial
review of proposed DOJ settlements. As part of the review process,
the court held a two-day evidentiary hearing, allowing witnesses
from third-party organizations to argue against the merger and
proposed settlement.
This case involved a departure from typical antitrust settlement
procedures under the Tunney Act. But although it is not typical for
a judge to hear argument in a Tunney Act proceeding (let alone hear
witnesses), the CVS/Aetna transaction is not the first DOJ
settlement that has attracted Judge Leon's close attention. In
2011, Judge Leon reviewed the Comcast/NBCU merger, and at his
request, DOJ
