United States and European Union Antitrust Agencies Issue Revised Best Practices for Coordinating Merger Reviews

http://ow.ly/6YWdw

This is a press release from the U.S. DOJ dated October 14th, 2011 posted on the justice.org website.

This press release discusses revised obligations for merger and acquisition due diligence procedures.

As the release states, "The Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the European Commission today issued an updated set of “best practices” that they use to coordinate their merger reviews. The agencies also celebrated the 20th anniversary of the United States-European Union bilateral antitrust agreement."

The document further states, "The revised U.S.-E.U. best practices:

• Provide more guidance to firms about how to work with the agencies to coordinate and facilitate the reviews of their proposed transactions;
• Recognize that transactions that authorities in the U.S. and Europe review may also be subject to antitrust review in other countries; and
• Place greater emphasis on coordination among the agencies at key stages of their investigations, including the final stage in which agencies consider potential remedies to preserve competition."