FTC Antitrust Chief Says Antitrust Enforcement Remains As Usual

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) antitrust enforcement remains as usual as it can be in unusual times, the head of the agency’s competition bureau said in comments made public Monday, April 20.

According to Law 360,  as part of a pre-recorded videocast panel alongside the heads of the agency’s economics and consumer protection sections, Bureau of Competition Director Ian R. Conner maintained that FTC antitrust enforcers are operating as close to normal as they can, shifting to electronic filings for merger notifications while continuing to scrutinize potentially anticompetitive conduct during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re not changing our enforcement priorities or our enforcement standards. So if you want to take advantage of the crisis to try and price fix or fix wage prices, those are the things we will still prosecute. So there’s no relaxation of antitrust rules here,” Conner said as part of the coronavirus-crisis-tweaked version of this year’s spring meeting of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section.

Conner made those particular remarks as he addressed the expedited process announced last month under which the FTC and its antitrust counterparts at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) stated they’d review inter-company coordination and other activities aimed at combating the spread of COVID-19. Companies seeking a DOJ Antitrust Division business review letter or FTC advisory opinion for virus-related conduct “addressing public health and safety” will receive a response within seven calendar days of the agencies getting “all necessary information,” according to a statement released at the time.

According to Conner, the pandemic has not changed antitrust rules. Instead, he noted that the advisory opinion process — through which companies can seek agency assurances that proposed conduct won’t run afoul of antitrust law — existed before the current crisis. The standards by which conduct is reviewed under the process, he said, is not going to be relaxed.

Full Content: Law 360

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