Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to Hold Joint Spring Enforcers Summit

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will cohost a Spring Enforcers Summit on April 4. Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter and FTC Chair Lina M. Khan, as well as senior staff from both agencies, will facilitate discussions on modernizing merger guidelines and interagency collaboration. The summit will be held in a hybrid format, with international enforcers and state Attorneys General participating both in-person and virtually. Throughout the day, the agencies will livestream several panel discussions and interviews to the public. The Enforcers Summit agenda and viewing instructions are available at https://www.justice.gov/atr/events/spring-2022-enforcers-summit.

“This summit provides a great opportunity for enforcers across the country and world to gather together and learn from each other,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Hearing from our international and state counterparts will help us to ensure that our enforcement practices and guidelines reflect modern market realities.”

“Mounting evidence of high concentration across markets and a variety of consequent harms have prompted a broad reassessment of our antitrust enforcement tools and frameworks,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. “As we seek to update our approach to match economic realities, learning from and collaborating with our state and international enforcement partners will best equip us to tackle challenges and chart the right path ahead.”

The Enforcers Summit will include conversations about merger enforcement as well as discussions on how to work with industry regulators as part of a whole of government approach to competition policy. These discussions will inform the agencies’ joint public inquiry on modernizing merger guidelines. As the Antitrust Division and FTC work to revise their joint merger guidelines, the agencies are encouraging input from a wide range of stakeholders and are holding listening sessions throughout the spring to hear from members of the public. This summit will provide a valuable opportunity to gather both international and domestic perspectives on how U.S. merger reform can help us meet the challenges and realities of the modern economy.