Federal Trade Commission

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On July 19, 2023, the United States Federal Trade Commission and the United States Department of Justice (together, the “Agencies”) released draft Merger Guidelines (the “Draft Guidelines”) for public comment. Once finalized, the Draft Guidelines, which are designed to help the public, business community, practitioners and courts understand how the Agencies identify potentially illegal mergers, will replace the US Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued in 2010 and the US Vertical Merger Guidelines issued in 2020.Continue Reading United States Antitrust Agencies Announce New Merger Guidelines: Overview and Implications for Canada

On June 27, 2023 the United States Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced proposed changes to the pre-merger notification process under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (the “HSR Act”). These proposed changes were published on June 29, 2023.

By way of background, the HSR Act is federal legislation that requires merging parties to report transactions to the FTC and DOJ (together, the “US Agencies”) if the transaction meets certain monetary thresholds. Currently, when notifying a transaction under the HSR Act, parties need to supply relatively basic information, including information about the transaction, their respective businesses (including their subsidiaries, revenues and shareholders) and the competitive overlaps between their respective businesses. Merging parties may not close a notifiable transaction until a 30-day statutory waiting period (15 days in the case of a cash tender offer or a bankruptcy) expires or is terminated.Continue Reading FTC and DOJ Propose Changes to US Merger Filing Process

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives in countless ways. For example, most of us are now working remotely for our home offices, living rooms or kitchen tables. In-person meetings have been replaced by video calls, email and texts. This is expected to continue for weeks – if not months – as governments at all levels are requesting that Canadians stay home in an attempt to “flatten the curve”.

While statistics aren’t available, it’s reasonable to assume that the number of documents being created and retained by businesses has increased since the pandemic began. In many cases, these documents are likely being drafted quickly and without regard to the tremendous impact that they could have on the business, including in the context of future antitrust investigation or proceedings. A short refresher on document creation – including the problems that bad or hot documents may create – is in order.Continue Reading Bad Documents – So What’s the Problem?

Canada’s antitrust/competition, marketing and foreign investment laws continue to apply despite the global health and economic crisis arising from COVID-19. However, the enforcement of these laws are being significantly impacted by the COVID-19 response. These developments are fast moving and change almost daily.

Fasken’s Antitrust/Competition & Marketing Group continues to monitor these developments very closely.…

Introduction

Following up from Part 1 of our article on the interaction of between privacy and competition law in the economy, Part 2 surveys how competition law enforcers in the United States, European Union, and Canada have addressed both competition and privacy concerns as it relates to data.

A number of significant mergers have…

On January 22, 2020, Josephine Palumbo, the Deputy Commissioner of the Deceptive Marketing Practices Directorate at the Canadian Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”), spoke at the Canadian Institute’s 26th Annual Advertising and Marketing Law Conference. During her remarks, titled Honest Advertising in the Digital Age, Ms. Palumbo identified the Bureau’s current enforcement…

Despite the fact that Canada’s Competition Bureau had concluded that the proposed acquisition of Canexus Corporation by Superior Plus Corp. would likely result in a substantial lessening of competition for the supply of various industrial chemical products in Canada, the Bureau issued a “no action” letter clearing the transaction under the Competition Act because of…