Cassidy Law
MONTH-IN-BRIEF (Nov 2024)
Antitrust Law
What Is the FTC “Merger Portal?”
By Barbara Sicalides and Julian Weiss, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
At the open meeting of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) this month, agency staff and commissioners discussed the recently launched “Merger Portal.” The portal is available on the FTC’s website and provides the public with an additional method of communicating opinions and facts regarding mergers to the agency.
According to FTC staff, the goals of the “Merger Portal” project are to (1) evolve—not upend—the existing FTC.gov complaint process; (2) give users a “more direct path” to merger complaints; and (3) collect useful information for merger investigations and enforcement actions. Members of the public can continue to comment on or raise concerns about a merger, as they have in the past, through counsel or direct electronic or telephonic communications with the agency. Staff and the commissioners noted that public input is welcome and can be important to merger enforcement. The Kroger/Albertsons merger, currently being challenged by the FTC and several state attorneys, was used as an example of a transaction where public input benefited the agency’s enforcement effort. The Merger Portal, described as part of an effort to “systemize” opportunities for public involvement, could also be an effective way to alert the agency to potentially anticompetitive transactions that fall below the Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) thresholds.
