Whither Merger Review? Looking Forward While Looking Back
31 August 2009
By Dr. Timothy Daniel
President Obama's antitrust team is now in place. These officials take their positions at a time when the antitrust enforcement record of the Bush Administration has faced criticism for being too lax, particularly the Antitrust Division's merger enforcement record. In this article from Antitrust Source, NERA Senior Vice President Dr. Timothy Daniel considers how the new competition enforcement officials will address merger enforcement, and provides context for this question by examining in detail the merger enforcement records of the FTC and the Antitrust Division in 2007 and 2008. Dr. Daniel argues that a careful look at these records uncovers the merger enforcement priorities in place during the latter years of the Bush Administration and gives insight into the likelihood that the Obama Administration appointees will instruct the agencies' merger enforcement staff to shift direction in meaningful ways.
This article first appeared in the August 2009 issue of Antitrust Source, © 2009 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.
