Category: Regulation & antitrust

Government review of mergers for competition and other public-interest concerns.

9 articles in this category.

• Antitrust and merger control — Government review of mergers to prevent harm to competition.
• CFIUS — The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — the inter-agency body that reviews foreign acquisitions of U.S. businesses for national-security implications.
• DOJ Antitrust Division review — Competition review by the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division. Allocation between DOJ and FTC depends on the industries involved.
• EU Merger Regulation — Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004, which gives the European Commission jurisdiction over mergers with an EU dimension. Deals above turnover thresholds are reviewed at EU level rather than by member states.
• FTC merger review — Competition review of a transaction by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, sharing jurisdiction with the DOJ Antitrust Division for HSR-reportable deals.
• Hart-Scott-Rodino Act — The U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, which requires premerger notification and an initial waiting period for transactions exceeding statutory size thresholds.
• Herfindahl-Hirschman Index — A measure of market concentration calculated as the sum of squared market shares. Used by U.S. and EU antitrust authorities as the primary screening metric in merger reviews.
• Market definition — The threshold step in any antitrust merger analysis: identifying the relevant product and geographic market in which the parties compete, against which concentration is then measured.
• Second Request — An extended antitrust investigation under HSR in which the reviewing agency demands additional information after the initial 30-day waiting period, lengthening review by months.