FTC announces SMARTER Act reforms; legislation would make permanent

Seeking to preempt legislation, the Federal Trade Commission Friday announced it will not automatically resort to administrative litigation when its efforts to block a merger in federal court are unsuccessful, returning to an approach first adopted in 1995. Meanwhile, members of the House Judiciary Committee prepared to reintroduce AHA-supported legislation to make the change permanent and harmonize judicial review standards for mergers between the two federal antitrust agencies. In a September letter of support for the Standard Merger and Acquisition Reviews Through Equal Rules (SMARTER) Act, which passed the House Judiciary Committee last year, AHA noted that “[h]ospitals, in particular, have been adversely impacted by the ability of the FTC to use its own internal administrative process to challenge a transaction.” The Senate is expected to introduce a companion bill and hold hearings early this year.