On November 12, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published its Final Rule and Statement of Basis and Purpose amending the Premerger Notification and Report Form filed for transactions reported under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (“HSR Act”).
Unless the Final Rule is delayed or rescinded by the FTC, the new
Judge Ada E. Brown of the Northern District of Texas this afternoon granted summary judgment in favor of Ryan, LLC and the plaintiff-intervenors in the case of Ryan, LLC v. Federal Trade Commission challenging the FTC’s ban on post-employment non-competes (“Non-Compete Rule”). Judge Brown concluded that the FTC lacked statutory authority to promulgate the
On January 22, the FTC announced updated dollar thresholds triggering the bar on interlocking officers and directors under Section 8 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 19. Section 8 of the Clayton Act prohibits one person from serving as a director or officer of two competing corporations if the corporations meet certain size and competitive sales thresholds. For 2024, Section 8 applies if each corporation has capital, surplus, and undivided profits aggregating more than $45,257,000; however, no corporation is covered if the competitive sales of either corporation are less than $4,525,700. These new thresholds took effect on January 22, 2024.
The next day, the FTC announced updated dollar thresholds triggering the jurisdiction of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (“HSR Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 18a, to certain acquisitions. The new HSR Act thresholds will take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. Continue Reading FTC Increases HSR Thresholds and Clayton 8 Thresholds
On September 26, 2023 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 states filed suit against Amazon in the Western District of Washington, alleging the tech giant uses anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly power in its online supermarket store and marketplace services. The FTC seeks a permanent injunction to prohibit Amazon from continuing its alleged “punitive and coercive tactics.”
The FTC alleges Amazon engages in exclusionary conduct that both hinders the ability of competitors to meaningfully compete on Amazon’s platform, and inflates online prices for consumers. Amazon owns its marketplace platform, sells its products on its platform in competition with other online sellers, and controls the fulfillment, shipping, and delivery network that sellers and customers are incentivized to use. As alleged by the FTC, Amazon (among other things) punishes companies that discount their products on other platforms by burying those sellers in its search results, coerces sellers to obtain “Prime” eligibility for their products and use Amazon’s higher-cost delivery network, biases search results to preference Amazon’s own products, and charges unreasonable fees to hundreds of thousands of third-party sellers.Continue Reading The FTC and States Sue Amazon, Alleging Anticompetitive Practices