COVID-19 Update: Antitrust Enforcement Remains Robust Despite COVID-19

Many clients have asked about the state of federal antitrust enforcement during the current pandemic. We can tell you this: the Agencies are taking longer to clear or challenge deals, but the level of antitrust enforcement, for both merger and conduct cases, remains robust despite the investigating staff operating from home offices and kitchen tables. 

Our progressive-minded friends at the American Antitrust Institute and the leaders of the FTC and DOJ have been locked in a public feud over the level of rigor in the Trump Administration's antitrust enforcement programs generally. We come down squarely on the side of the FTC/DOJ that the AAI has cherry-picked and manipulated data to support its assertion that enforcement productivity is down. Instead, we see evidence that enforcement during the current regime is comparable to previous Democratic and Republican administrations for the past several decades. Moreover, and despite a call by some progressive