On November 3, 2023, FTC Chair Lina Khan sent a letter addressed to Representative Thomas P. Tiffany describing the FTC’s merger enforcement program during her tenure at the agency. The letter was a response to an inquiry from seven members of congress for information about the costs associated with certain litigated merger challenges brought by the FTC. Chair Khan’s letter included an appendix that listed all of the merger enforcement actions the FTC had initiated during her tenure. The data in that appendix corroborate the key finding from an article I authored for Law360 in October 2023: merger enforcement actions during the Biden Administration are at their lowest level in decades.
The Chair’s letter is also noteworthy because it seems to acknowledge the practical and substantive benefits of consent decrees, which may suggest a softening of the FTC’s views on settlements.
Continue Reading Recently Published FTC Data Confirm Historically Low Number of Merger Enforcement Actions