Biden’s Crackdown on Illegal Mergers Is Cemented With New Deal Rules
- Enforcers overhaul rules in bid to limit anticompetitive deals
- Non-binding rules aim to help agencies win more cases in court
Joe Biden
Photographer: Al Drago/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The Biden administration’s antitrust agencies finalized a sweeping overhaul of rules the government uses to determine whether deals violate competition law in a bid to extend a crackdown on illegal mergers and acquisitions.
The 11 new guidelines published Monday by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are designed to thwart companies seeking to dominate their industries by buying up rivals. They largely mirror a proposal issued in July, though the final version didn’t include a proposed guideline related to so-called vertical deals — those between companies that aren’t direct competitors but operate in the same supply chain.