Department of Justice Antitrust Division Announces Agenda and Panelists for Workshop on Proposed Vertical Merger Guidelines

The Department of Justice has released the agenda and list of participants for its March 11, 2020, public workshop to solicit public dialogue on the proposed vertical merger guidelines.  The workshop will be the first in a two-part series hosted together with the Federal Trade Commission.  The two half-day workshops will allow for a dynamic discussion about the proposed guidelines to complement the written public comments about the proposed guidelines that were submitted to the agencies.

The proposed guidelines describe how the federal antitrust agencies review vertical mergers to evaluate whether they violate antitrust law. Vertical mergers combine two or more companies that operate at different levels of the supply chain. The proposed guidelines outline the agencies’ principal analytical techniques, practices, and enforcement policy for vertical mergers. The Department of Justice and the FTC cooperated closely in preparing the proposed guidelines, which reflect the agencies’ significant experience in analyzing vertical mergers. The guidelines are intended to assist the business community and antitrust practitioners by providing transparency about the agencies’ antitrust enforcement practices with respect to vertical mergers.

The agencies will consider both public comments and workshop discussions before issuing final vertical merger guidelines. A copy of the public comments received by the agencies are available here.

The agenda for the workshop includes a session from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EDT. Details are as follows:

Welcome Address

• Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, U.S. Department of Justice

Opening Remarks

• Christine Wilson, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission

Panel 1: Former Enforcer and Practitioner Perspectives  

• Moderators: David Shaw, Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, U.S. Department of Justice & Heather Johnson, Senior Counsel to the Director, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission
• Renata Hesse, Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell, former Acting Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, U.S. Department of Justice
• Jonathan Jacobson, Partner, Wilson Sonsini
• Robert Majure, Ph.D., Vice President, Cornerstone Research, former Director of Economics for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice
• Jonathan Sallet, Senior Fellow, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, U.S. Department of Justice
• Craig Waldman, Partner, Jones Day

Panel 2: Public Interest and Academic Perspectives

• Moderators: David Lawrence, Chief, Competition Policy & Advocacy Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice & Andrew Sweeting, Director, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission
• Avery Gardiner, Senior Fellow for Competition, Data, and Power, Center for Democracy & Technology, former Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, U.S. Department of Justice
• Aviv Nevo, Ph.D., Professor, University of Pennsylvania, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economic Analysis, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice
• Steven Salop, Ph.D., Professor, Georgetown Law Center, former Associate Director for Special Projects, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission
• Charlotte Slaiman, Competition Policy Director, Public Knowledge
• Christopher Yoo, Professor, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

The workshop is free and open to the public. The March 11, 2020 workshop will take place at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EDT. A recording of the workshop will be available on the Division’s website. Registration information, an agenda, directions to the event, and a list of speakers will be available prior to each workshop on the event webpage. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to register in advance for the workshop. Registration for the workshop may be completed on Eventbrite. Members of the press should also copy Alexei.Woltornist@usdoj.gov on their registration email. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendees should bring a valid government-issued photo ID (government badge, license, passport, etc.) and arrive in time to go through security.

Reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon request. If you need such an accommodation, please contact the Antitrust Division at verticalmergerguidelines@usdoj.gov. Such requests should include a detailed description of the accommodations needed and a way to contact you if we need more information.

The second workshop will be hosted on March 18, 2020, by the Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT. The Federal Trade Commission will announce the agenda for the second workshop at www.ftc.gov.