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Showing 9 of 414 Publications in Mergers & Merger Enforcement
TOTM As Manfred reports over at the Antitrust Review, the judge has unsealed the FTC’s complaint against Whole Foods. This unredacted version reveals an unhealthy reliance . . .
As Manfred reports over at the Antitrust Review, the judge has unsealed the FTC’s complaint against Whole Foods. This unredacted version reveals an unhealthy reliance on hot docs by the FTC’s staff. I won’t belabor the point. But when you’re looking at marketing materials and reports to the board to identify anticompetitive intent (hmmm. I didn’t know intent was relevant in merger cases . . . .) through “fighting words” and “smoking guns,” you’re barking up the wrong tree. It is little or no evidence of likely anticompetitive effect that Whole Food’s outspoken CEO claims that purchasing Wild Oats will remove “forever or almost forever” the threat to Whole Food’s market.
Read the full piece here.
TOTM Geoff nailed it on the Whole Foods/Wild Oats affair last week. Always a day late and a dollar short, I’ve just written my own short . . .
Geoff nailed it on the Whole Foods/Wild Oats affair last week. Always a day late and a dollar short, I’ve just written my own short piece on the FTC’s effort to block the merger of these two fancy grocers.
TOTM It appears that the FTC is moving to stop the proposed Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger. Read the full piece here.
It appears that the FTC is moving to stop the proposed Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger.
TOTM One of the more interesting parts of Senator Herbert Kohl’s recent Antitrust interview, in which he also discussed airline mergers, concerned antitrust’s treatment of media . . .
One of the more interesting parts of Senator Herbert Kohl’s recent Antitrust interview, in which he also discussed airline mergers, concerned antitrust’s treatment of media consolidation.
TOTM One nice thing about being a legal academic is that you can diversify your political portfolio. By that, I mean that you become somewhat indifferent . . .
One nice thing about being a legal academic is that you can diversify your political portfolio. By that, I mean that you become somewhat indifferent to who’s in office. If it’s folks you agree with, then you’re happy because your preferred policies are being implemented. If it’s folks with whom you disagree, then you’re happy because your job (criticizing bad policy) becomes easier.
TOTM The proposed merger has been making lots of waves in the press as of late, including a Congressional hearing (Antitrust Review has links to all . . .
The proposed merger has been making lots of waves in the press as of late, including a Congressional hearing (Antitrust Review has links to all the hearing testimony) but not much serious grappling with the antitrust issues. I even read today that John Ashcroft has chimed in. Of course, it is very difficult to do much serious analysis about likely competitive effects without more information than is available publicly.
TOTM The tentative recommendations of the Antitrust Modernization Committee are out, and include Commissioner vote counts for various propositions. The recommendations largely take the form of . . .
The tentative recommendations of the Antitrust Modernization Committee are out, and include Commissioner vote counts for various propositions. The recommendations largely take the form of propositions that the AMC Commissioners joined, did not join, or were undetermined. Here are a few that caught my eye on an initial read-through (note that 2-5 apply to merger analysis).
TOTM Eugene Volokh has posted a series discussing his new article (forthcoming in Harvard L. Rev.) “Medical Self-Defense, Prohibited Experimental Therapies, and Payment for Organs,” which . . .
Eugene Volokh has posted a series discussing his new article (forthcoming in Harvard L. Rev.) “Medical Self-Defense, Prohibited Experimental Therapies, and Payment for Organs,” which I point out because the article claims that bans on organ payments violate patients’ medical self-defense rights. As readers of TOTM know, organ markets are a topic of substantial interest around here. Eugene dedicates a separate post to refuting the oft-repeated mantra that the ban on compensation is necessary to prevent the wealthy from buying up all of the organs.
TOTM In January, Washington, D.C. will join the nearly 500 cities nationwide that have thwarted the free market’s accommodation of heterogeneous preferences and have ordered private . . .
In January, Washington, D.C. will join the nearly 500 cities nationwide that have thwarted the free market’s accommodation of heterogeneous preferences and have ordered private property owners to forbid their invitees from engaging in otherwise legal behavior. I am speaking, of course, of Washington’s forthcoming smoking ban.