Event Description
On March 27, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department’s Antitrust Division will cohost a Spring Enforcers Summit. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan and DOJ Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, as well as senior staff from both agencies, will facilitate discussions on complex challenges in merger and unilateral conduct enforcement in digital and transitional markets.
The Enforcers Summit will include publicly streamed plenary sessions as well as closed-door, in-person breakout discussions, designed to share feedback, evidence, and ideas. Given capacity constraints, we invite Attorneys General and agency heads who will be in Washington on March 27 to join in-person, and will allocate additional places to senior officials as space permits. In-person participation only for those international and state enforcement officials who are pre-registered. All others are welcome to view the plenary sessions virtually.
Viewing Instructions
This event is free and open to the public. The link to the live webcast will be available on the Department of Justices, Antitrust Division’s website just prior to the start of the program on Monday, March 27, 2023.
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Agenda
Monday, March 27
* 9:00 a.m.
Welcome Address
* 9:05 am – 10:30 am Interviews of AAG Kanter and Chair Khan
10:30 am – 10:45 am
Break
* 10:45 am – 12:00 pm Panel: Challenges in Merger Review
This discussion will address challenges in merger review, including: (1) establishing illegality in emerging markets; (2) successful examples of using direct evidence, rather than indirect evidence, to establish markets and theories of harm; (3) examples of theories of harm for the merger of complementary products, such as the entrenchment of market power and portfolio effects; and (4) examples of theories based on the merging parties’ use of data, including privacy, information exploitation, or information sharing.
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Lunch Break
* 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Panel: Challenges in Monopolization Cases
This discussion will seek to identify fact patterns that might not fit current doctrinal theories. Are there particular business strategies harmful to competition that do not fit into the foreclosure and exclusion frameworks, such as an “open-first, closed later” strategy of increasing market share, or the swift integration and rapid scaling of an acquired product to quickly establish a strong foothold?
2:00 pm – 2:15 pm Break
2:15 pm – 3:30 pm Coffee Talk – Merger Review, Monopolization, Remedies, and Rollup Strategies/Pre-Commercial Activities
A rapporteur appointed for each table will walk through series of questions and share responses with the Coffee Talk Session Chair.
3:30 pm – 3:45 pm Break
3:45 pm – 4:00 pm Remarks on Procurement Collusion
4:00 pm – 4:15 pm Remarks on Unfair Practices
4:15 pm – 5:15 pm Coffee Talk – Procurement Collusion, Unfair Methods of Competition, and a Continuing Dialogue on Merger Review and Monopolization
A rapporteur appointed for each table will walk through series of questions and share responses with the Coffee Talk Session Chair.
5:15 pm – 5:30 pm Concluding Remarks
* Denotes session that will be made public with livestreaming