Dallas Locke Lord Partner Brad Weber Quoted by National Law Journal on Draft of FTC and DOJ’s Updated Merger Guidelines

Dallas Partner Brad Weber, Co-Chair of Locke Lord’s Antitrust Practice Group, was quoted by the National Law Journal on the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s updated merger guidelines draft, which describes the agencies’ approach in reviewing potential mergers and acquisitions to determine if they comply with federal antitrust laws. While these guidelines have been revised several times to reflect market realities, the agencies have lowered the market concentration threshold “pretty significantly,” Weber explains, adding that mergers in markets that used to be considered less concentrated will now require further investigation.

“This guidance will make it harder for companies that acquire multiple small companies to avoid investigation,” he said. “A new part of the guidelines says that the agencies will look at the combined effect of these smaller transactions to see if they’re anti-competitive. That was not in the prior guidelines.”

Read the full National Law Journal article (subscription may be required).