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1 1 (May 18, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdanx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ~* or 101 ' Researh Service Antitrust Enforcement During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Frequently Asked Questions May 18, 2020 Although the COVID-19 coronavirus has shuttered wide swaths of the U.S. economy, it has also spurred a flurry of activity by some of the country's largest firms. To respond to the virus, major medical-supply companies have announced collaborative efforts to manufacture, source, and distribute medical equipment. Large pharmaceutical companies and tech firms have likewise partnered with rivals to develop new products to treat and track the virus. And while economic uncertainty has led to sharp declines in mergers, some commentators predict that dominant, cash-rich firms will ultimately benefit from virus-induced financial turmoil by acquiring smaller, less secure competitors at bargain prices. These developments potentially implicate federal antitrust law, which prohibits anticompetitive agreements between firms and mergers and acquisitions that threaten to substantially lessen competition. This Legal Sidebar responds to certain frequently asked questions involving the intersection of antitrust enforcement and COVID- 19. Will companies that collaborate with one another in response to COVID-19 face antitrust liability? Under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, courts evaluate most types of inter-firm cooperation using the Rule of Reason, which condemns anticompetitive agreements as unlawful but permits other types of collaboration. Because this inquiry is highly fact-intensive, it is difficult to draw categorical conclusions about the boundaries of permissible inter-firm cooperation. But collaboration on research and development (R&D), the sharing of technical know-how, and joint-purchasing agreements among firms that lack market power ordinarily survive Rule-of-Reason scrutiny. In contrast, agreements between competitors to share their internal information about prices, wages, costs, and output are more likely to violate antitrust law. In March, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-the agencies charged with enforcing federal antitrust law-released a Joint Statement Regarding COVID- 19 reiterating these principles. In their Joint Statement, the agencies identified several examples of virus-related collaboration that are likely to be permissible, including joint ventures involving the production or distribution of medical supplies, joint-purchasing arrangements among healthcare providers, and collaborative R&D efforts. To provide greater certainty to companies seeking to enter into such arrangements, the antitrust regulators also announced plans to expedite COVID-19-related requests under the DOJ's Business Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10472 CRS Lega Sidebw Prepaed for Membei-s and corn nittees o4 Co nqress ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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