FTC Issues Horizontal Merger Investigation Data

The Federal Trade Commission today released a staff analysis of horizontal merger investigations for fiscal years 1996 to 2003. The merger data released contains tabulated market share and concentration levels associated with the FTC’s investigations in more than 780 markets over the last eight years. The data tabulations use the two market share concentration statistics described in the agency’s Horizontal Merger Guidelines – the post-merger Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and the change in the HHI – and reflect 151 horizontal merger investigations in total.

For a subset of the investigations – those with three or fewer markets – the FTC staff also retrieved information on whether or not “hot documents” or “strong customer complaints” were identified during the investigation. The FTC staff have tabulated the Commission’s enforcement decisions based on the presence or absence of these variables. These results are presented in tabular format. In addition, the data discuss the number of “significant competitors” with regard to decisions to seek relief in horizontal merger investigations, defining the term relative to the competitive effects theory that was the most plausible basis for the specific investigation. Data on “significant competitors” is presented for 573 relevant markets.

The FTC and Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice also have announced that they will hold a joint workshop on merger enforcement in Washington, DC, on February 17-19, 2004. Copies of the announcement of a workshop on merger enforcement, as well as the summary of merger challenges data for fiscal years 1999-2003, can be found on the Commission’s Web site at www.ftc.gov.