Federal antitrust agencies have proposed updates to U.S. merger guidelines that, if finalized, could free up regulators to more successfully crack down on consolidation in the healthcare industry, according to antitrust experts. The new Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice guidelines include a number of facets that regulators could use to target vertical and cross-market deals, Helathcare Dive reports.
The guidelines are likely to have a chilling effect on merger activity overall — at least temporarily, until corporate America sees how M&A challenges play out in the courts, lawyers said.
“These guidelines, if adopted, will result in greater scrutiny and raise the likelihood of more challenges overall,” said Jim Burns, an antitrust lawyer at Williams Mullen. Read more.
