The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission 1992 Horizontal Merger Guidelines substantially revised and updated the Department of Justice 1984 Merger Guidelines, with respect to the analytic framework the government would use to evaluate horizontal mergers. The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines revised but did not depart substantially from that analytic framework. Earlier this year, the Biden administration indicated an intention to substantially revise the existing merger guidelines and depart significantly from the analytic framework of the 1992 Horizontal Merger Guidelines, and re-adopt the more structural approach of the Department of Justice’s 1968 and 1982/1984 Merger Guidelines. Host Bilal Sayyed sat down with James Rill (Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, 1989-1992), Paul Denis and Jon Baker to discuss what led the antitrust agencies to move away from the structural approach the Biden Administration seems likely to re-adopt.
Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, 1992 Horizontal Merger Guidelines
Jonathan Baker, The Problem with Baker Hughes and Syufy: On the Role of Entry in Merger Analysis (Apr. 25, 1996)
Jonathan Baker, Unilateral Competitive Effects Theories in Merger Analysis (Aug. 6, 1996)
Jonathan Baker, Responding to Developments in Economics and in the Courts: Entry in the Merger Guidelines (2003)
Paul Denis, Advances of the 1992 Horizontal Merger Guidelines, (1992)
Paul Denis, An Insider’s Look at the New Horizontal Merger Guidelines
James F. Rill, Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Merger Enforcement at the Department of Justice (Mar. 23, 1990),
James F. Rill, Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 60 Minutes with the Honorable James F. Rill (Apr. 3, 1992)
Judy Whalley, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, After the Herfindahls are Counted; Assessment of Entry and Efficiencies in Merger Enforcement by the Department of Justice (1989)
Robert D. Willig, Merger Analysis, Industrial Organization Theory, and Merger Guidelines
Complaint: U.S. v. Pacific Amphitheatre Partnership, et al.
TechFreedom comment on the request for information on merger enforcement guidelines (2022)
TechFreedom comment on the 2023 proposed draft merger guidelines