Recent FTC Merger Settlement Signals Increased Antitrust Agency Concerns About Coordination From Competitor Entanglements

Key Takeaways

• An FTC merger settlement in the $5.2 billion transaction between EQT and Quantum, two producers of natural gas in the Appalachian Basin, signals the antitrust agencies' new approach to analyzing the potential for coordination by examining touchpoints between merging parties and competitors.
• Importantly the FTC conducted a full-scale investigation of the transaction's potential substantive impact on direct competition between the parties and cleared the transaction. Yet the FTC obtained a settlement to resolve concerns about ongoing entanglements between the two companies.
• The FTC settlement has three key features, each of which stakes out aggressive positions that may not have held up had the merging parties litigated them in court. The FTC settlement: (1) alleged a violation of Section 8 of the Clayton Act's prohibition against interlocking directorates that extends beyond existing precedent; (2) advanced an untested theory that Quantum—which