Since at least 2017, when the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)
sued to block a vertical merger, the business press has been
atwitter about the antitrust enforcement agencies' views of
such mergers, as we covered
here.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) answered in a January 2018
speech by Bruce Hoffman, then-acting director of the Bureau of
Competition, stating that "[c]ontrary to the popular view in
the business press . . . vertical merger review has been and
continues to be a meaningful and important part of the FTC (and
DOJ) merger enforcement." The thrust of Director Hoffman's
speech, which we reviewed
here, was threefold: (1) antitrust enforcers have a long
history of investigating vertical mergers; (2) the FTC usually
relies on three established theories of competitive harm for
reviewing vertical mergers; and (3) "no one should be
surprised" if the antitrust enforcers seek relief for proposed
vertical mergers.
