The Trump administration‘s antitrust landscape continues to evolve, with a return to structural remedies, increased transparency in merger settlements, and skepticism toward innovation defenses in tech deals. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are also actively promoting faster merger reviews and emphasizing strong divestiture standards.
On February 9, 2022, the US Treasury Department (Treasury) released a report with recommendations for how the Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) can help drive competition in the beer, wine and spirits markets by stepping up conduct enforcement, adopting creative and nuanced theories of harm in merger reviews and implementing new regulations to decrease the burden on smaller industry participants. Treasury’s report is based, in part, on hundreds of comments received from industry participants and paints a detailed picture of the current landscape for alcohol beverage distribution and sale across the United States.
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