FTC, DOJ Form Joint Task Force To Reexamine Treatment of Cost Savings in Merger Analysis

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) today announced that they have established a joint task force that will examine whether and, if so, how the antitrust analysis of mergers should take into account any probable cost savings from a merger. A recently issued FTC Staff Report had proposed such a task force. The joint task force will consider whether to recommend any change in the treatment of efficiencies in the agencies’ joint 1992 Horizontal Merger Guidelines.

FTC staff on the joint task force will be Jonathan Baker (Director, Bureau of Economics); George Cary (Deputy Director, Bureau of Competition); Howard Morse (Assistant Director, Merger II); and Debra Valentine (Assistant Director, International). DOJ Antitrust Division staff on the joint task force will be Larry Fullerton (Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Merger Enforcement); Andrew Joskow (Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics); Constance Robinson (Director, Office of Operations); and Charles Biggio (Senior Counsel for Merger Enforcement).

Copies of the FTC staff report, titled “Anticipating the 21st Century: Competition Policy in the New High-Tech, Global Marketplace,” are available from the FTC’s Public Reference Branch, Room 130, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20580; 202-326-2222. TTY for the hearing impaired 1-866-653-4261.