By Jay L. Levine In Part 3 of their Capper Volstead series, Jay Levine and Don Barnes discuss other statutes that exempt agricultural cooperatives from antitrust liability and delve into the historical and present relationship that USDA and DOJ have with the Capper Volstead Act.   Read a transcript of the episode here. Find Jay on Twitter and LinkedIn or contact him at jlevine@porterwright.com. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts, including: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music&nb ..read more

By Jay L. Levine and Don Barnes In Part 2 of their Capper Volstead series, Jay Levine and Don Barnes continue to discuss the need for the Capper Volstead Act and its key elements. Specifically, the team dives in to discuss why the Act was required and preview some of the ongoing issues with its application. Read a transcript of the episode here. Find Jay on Twitter and LinkedIn or contact him at jlevine@porterwright.com. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts, including: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music ..read more

By Jay L. Levine On Jan. 23, 2023, the FTC announced annual changes to notification thresholds for filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and certain other values under HSR rules. But this time, the annual changes include a radically different tier structure with much heftier filing fees. The new thresholds become effective in late February. Companies should review the new changes to ensure they comply with the HSR Act for their 2023 transactions. The HSR Act requires that acquisitions of voting securities or assets that exceed certain thresholds be disclosed to U.S. a ..read more

By Jay L. Levine and Don Barnes In a belated tribute to Capper Volstead’s 100th anniversary, Jay talks with his legal partner Don Barnes, one of the deans of the agricultural bar and an authority on Capper Volstead. In Part 1, they discuss the origins of Capper Volstead and how the legal landscape for agricultural producers has changed over time. Read a transcript of the episode here. Find Jay on Twitter and LinkedIn or contact him at jlevine@porterwright.com. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts, including: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts  ..read more

By Jay L. Levine Picking up where they left off, the FTC has wasted no time in the new year and already proposed to effectively ban all employment non-compete clauses. The proposed rule would make future non-competes unlawful and nullify any existing agreements. In our latest podcast, Jay explains how this proposal fits in with the administration’s attempt to revise the antitrust laws. Read a transcript of the episode here. Find Jay on Twitter and LinkedIn or contact him at jlevine@porterwright.com. Listen wherever you listen to podcasts, including: Apple Po ..read more

By Grace Karabinus and Jay L. Levine Last year, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is not authorized to impose civil penalties on parties who violate the FTC Act unless the party is violating a previous cease and order. The ruling took away a major enforcement tool. Now, Axon Enterprises is seeking to attack the entire structure of the FTC while it simultaneously defends its acquisition of VieVu, LLC in administrative court. It will be interesting to see whether the Supreme Court is going to deliver a blow to the FTC two years in a row. Axon and the FT ..read more

By Jay L. Levine and Grace Karabinus Two recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) actions confirm the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) is not to be ignored. On Dec. 22, the FTC fined both Biglari Holdings and the founder of Werner Enterprises for failure to file with the FTC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) before consummating significant acquisitions of related entities. Under HSR, parties to mergers and acquisitions that meet certain size thresholds must notify the antitrust enforcement agencies of the pending transaction. Parties also cannot close the transaction until the HSR deadline has pass ..read more

By Jay L. Levine and Carrie Garrison Our last article, New Brandeisians keep their promise, discussed the contents of Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) proposed overarching antitrust legislation, Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act (CALERA). Now, we’d like to take a step back and focus on the arguments supporting and opposing such reform, and in particular the precise manner in which the proposed legislation goes about such reform. We’d also like to highlight another antitrust statute proposed by Sen. Klobuchar, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. What do New Brandeisi ..read more

By Jay L. Levine In part three of their series, “The Antitrust Revolution,” host Jay Levine and fellow attorney Carrie Garrison explain what New Brandeisians are trying to achieve and why they believe that the antitrust laws need fixing. In particular, they discuss Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) proposed “Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act” and how it fits into the “progressive” agenda. This podcast will definitely help you make sense of all the headlines you keep seeing! Read a transcript of the episode here. Find Jay on Twitter and Linkedin or contact him at jlevine@porterwri ..read more