By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 7-21-21
The Federal Trade Commission has voted along party lines to rescind its policy statement that it would not require prior notice and approval of mergers undertaken by companies that have settled FTC complaints against previous proposed mergers.
Under that policy, the FTC was still able to require either prior notice of approval, FTC Republicans pointed out, but only of deals that it believed were likely to be a threat to competition and consumers rather than all deals proposed by a company that has settled a previous merger proposal.
Democrats supporting the reversal said the policy tied the FTC’s hands when it came to aggressive enforcement of antitrust laws. » Read More