Merger Enforcement In The Biden Administration

The FTC has issued several statements recently that have confused the market and bar as to what its merger enforcement posture will be. Among others, the FTC has suspended early terminations; has sent letters to parties after the waiting period has expired telling them that investigations are still pending and that they close "at their own risk;" is saying that parties need to provide more data and documents to negotiate the scope of second requests but don't say what data and documents they would like to see; in an informal interpretation, has suggested that parties should not rely on informal interpretations; and have revoked the vertical merger guidelines replacing them with nothing.