DOJ Antitrust Division Leadership States No Guidance Forthcoming On Criminal Monopolization Cases

In a significant departure from past enforcement practices, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) recently announced a new focus on prosecuting criminal monopolization cases under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. DOJ has not prosecuted a criminal monopolization case in nearly 50 years. Nonetheless, Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Enforcement Richard Powers has indicated that DOJ has no intention of providing guidance to the business community related to this new focus on criminal prosecutions for monopolization. Businesses will therefore need to redouble efforts to comply with Section 2, despite a "dearth of Section 2 case law addressing modern markets," as Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, the DOJ's top antitrust enforcer, put it in a January speech to the New York State Bar Association.