For the first time since 1992, the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, and the Federal Trade Commission plan to revise the merger guidelines that explain the federal government’s enforcement policy with respect to mergers between horizontal competitors. Originally drafted in 1968, the guidelines underwent major revisions in the 1980s and again in the early 1990s. Because of the dearth of Supreme Court merger cases since the 1970s, the guidelines have come to be the definitive word on merger enforcement, and have been cited by courts as if they were a source of law rather than just enforcement policy.
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