On 18 December 2023, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jointly issued their highly anticipated final version of the 2023 Merger Guidelines . The issuance of the Guidelines follows the agencies’ release of draft guidelines in July and the conclusion of a public notice-and-comment period. The Guidelines set out how the agencies assess whether mergers and acquisitions threaten anticompetitive harm in violation of US antitrust laws.

Most notably, the newly issued Guidelines retained the lower thresholds for establishing presumptions of anticompetitive harm — including if the merger gives the combined firm more than 30% market share. Additionally, the Guidelines outline a holistic approach for analyzing vertical mergers.

On 3 February 2023, the US Department of Justice announced the withdrawal of three antitrust policy statements that allowed certain information exchanges between competitors in healthcare markets. The day before this announcement, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of DOJ Antitrust Division warned that DOJ would reconsider these outdated policy statements in light of recent changes in the healthcare industry.

On 9 July 2021, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order (“Order”) and a supporting Fact Sheet announcing 72 initiatives to increase vigorous antitrust enforcement. The Order sets competition-law priorities for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and more than a dozen other federal agencies coordinated through a new White House Competition Council.

On 9 July 2021, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order and a supporting Fact Sheet announcing 72 initiatives to increase vigorous antitrust enforcement. The Order sets competition-law priorities for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and more than a dozen other federal agencies coordinated through a new White House Competition Council.