The Trump administration’s antitrust landscape continues to develop with key changes in industry and policy priorities, remedy expectations, and agency personnel. Among the updates, Mark Meador was confirmed as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, President Trump signed an executive order to eliminate anticompetitive regulations, and the Department of Justice is partial to populist antitrust with the “America First” movement. These changes signal a shift in antitrust enforcement, with a focus on reducing regulatory burdens and addressing competitive issues in key sectors like healthcare, transportation, and entertainment.
Heard at the 2025 Antitrust Law Section Spring Meeting
The American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section held its annual Spring Meeting from April 2 to 5 in Washington, DC, where federal, state, and international antitrust enforcers shared key updates and enforcement priorities. At the Spring Meeting, antitrust agencies signaled continued scrutiny of mergers, noncompete agreements, and Big Tech – plus an uptick in state-level enforcement and continued consumer protection activity – regardless of changes in administration.
Antitrust Under Trump: March 2025 Updates
The Trump administration has taken significant steps to reshape antitrust enforcement by exerting greater control over the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), firing two Democratic FTC commissioners. Leadership has also begun to outline more of their priorities in speeches and interviews. These changes outline antitrust enforcement priorities, with a stronger emphasis on economic analysis and litigation against Big Tech, healthcare, and a continuing focus on labor market issues.
Antitrust Under Trump: Initial Policies and Actions
The Trump administration has initiated significant changes in antitrust policy through key appointments and policy announcements. The administration announced that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and US Department of Justice (DOJ) will continue using the 2023 Merger Guidelines and expressed support for new Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) rules. Additionally, the FTC outlined its goals, which include improving the merger review process by moving more quickly, accepting settlements where warranted, and combating Big Tech censorship.
New HSR Rules Go Live: Your Playbook for Effective M&A
Starting today, February 10, 2025, all merger filings will be subject to new Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) rules. The new HSR rules will fundamentally alter the premerger notification process, and substantially increase the burden on filing parties, who will need to provide significantly more information and documents with their initial filings.
Companies can take steps today to make filings under the new rules less burdensome and increase the likelihood of achieving antitrust clearance, such as collecting and regularly updating the “off-the-shelf” information needed for all filings, and engaging in earlier discussions with the legal team to identify potential overlaps and supply relationships and develop key themes around transaction rationales and impacts on competition that will need to be included in the filing.
