Antitrust Review of Mergers in a Global Environment

In this seminar, students will learn how domestic and international mergers and acquisitions are reviewed under the antitrust laws, with an emphasis on U.S. antitrust law at the federal level. Topics will include market definition and measures of market concentration; theories of liability for anticompetitive horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate mergers; methods for predicting anticompetitive effects; failing firm, efficiencies, and other defenses; remedies; and enforcement mechanics. We will also spend some time on extraterritorial application of U.S. merger law, merger control in Europe and other jurisdictions, and the problems associated with mergers that are subject to challenge under the laws of more than one jurisdiction. Assigned reading for the course will go beyond U.S. Supreme Court decisions, which are outdated in this field, and include leading lower court decisions, government enforcement guidelines, government complaints, consent settlements, proposed legislation, and other nontraditional materials.