by Ilene Knable Gotts, Christina C. Ma, and Katharine R. Haigh
Left to right: Ilene Knable Gotts, Christina C. Ma, and Katharine R. Haigh (photos courtesy of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz)
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice published a proposed replacement to the existing Horizontal Merger Guidelines and Vertical Merger Guidelines. The agencies’ draft guidelines (the “Guidelines”) do not have any independent legal effect, but are intended to influence the federal courts and to provide guidance as to how the federal antitrust authorities will analyze the competitive impact of transactions and decide whether to challenge them.