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M&A in the media industry is about to pick up. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 2017 rollback of media ownership limits. Media companies that once avoided specific acquisitions due to regulatory ownership limits may now take a second look. But passing through FCC review is only part of the equation, with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) and many State Attorneys General frequently taking a hard look at deals in this sector. The Supreme Court’s decision affirming the FCC’s relaxation of its ownership limits means that antitrust scrutiny may now play a larger role in the clearance of media mergers as media companies look to make acquisitions past the FCC’s prior limits.
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With antitrust enforcement of the technology sector making
headlines daily, and as lawmakers focus on strengthening and
potentially reforming antitrust laws as a tool to regulate the tech
industry, we anticipate a significant increase in scrutiny by US
federal antitrust authorities of vertical mergers,
1
including merger of complements and so-called diagonal
mergers in the technology sector. Notwithstanding the
current challenges of vertical merger enforcement,
2 on
June 30, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) and
the Department of Justice ( DOJ ) issued guidelines (the Vertical Merger Guidelines )
3 describing the
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
With antitrust enforcement of the technology sector making headlines daily, and as lawmakers focus on strengthening and potentially reforming antitrust laws as a tool to regulate the tech industry, we anticipate a significant increase in scrutiny by US federal antitrust authorities of vertical mergers,
[1] including merger of complements and so-called “diagonal mergers” in the technology sector. Notwithstanding the current challenges of vertical merger enforcement,
[2] on June 30, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued guidelines (the “Vertical Merger Guidelines”)
[3] describing the practices, techniques and enforcement policies the agencies use to evaluate vertical mergers, and on December 22, 2020, the FTC issued additional guidance on Vertical Merger Enforcement (the “Commentary”).
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On 22 December 2020, on a divided vote, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or the Commission) issued a Commentary on Vertical Merger Enforcement (FTC Commentary) to provide “greater transparency to the public regarding its analysis of vertical mergers.” Following the FTC and Department of Justice (DOJ)’s publication of new Vertical Merger Guidelines in June 2020 (the 2020 Vertical Guidelines) , the FTC Commentary provides analysis of a number of the vertical merger cases the agency has adjudicated over the past 25 years, offering insights on the Commission’s handling of vertical merger issues and “describing the principal analytical techniques, practices, and enforcement policies” the Commission utilizes to determine whether a vertical merger poses potential competitive harm in violation of the antitrust laws.