LAW 639 - Antitrust & Mergers

Prereq/Corequisite(s): Suggested prereq or co-req: LAW 411 - Antitrust

Antitrust & Mergers Using recent real world examples, this course will examine the application of U.S. antitrust laws to evaluate the competitive effects of mergers. The relevant statutes covered will be the Sherman Act Section 1, the Clayton Act, the FTC Act, the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and EU Title 81. The course will begin with an examination of these statutes and the two federal agencies jointly Merger Guidelines. It will then move to examine the relevant case law, FTC decisions and DOJ statements on product market definition, geographic market definition, competitive effects analysis, and the increasing importance of efficiencies in merger analysis. The course will end with an examination of the divergent views on merger analysis between the U.S. authorities and the EU. The course will deal with the antitrust laws of the United States, a topic covered by the law schools current course on antitrust. The proposed course, however, will focus on the application of antitrust laws to mergers and the merger review process conducted by the federal agencies and the EU.