Merger guidelines

Merger guidelines in the United States are a set of internal rules promulgated by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

[2] These merger guidelines were criticized in some quarters for excess concern with issues of market structure such as barriers to entry and concentration ratios at the expense of efficiency and economies of scale.

[3] They were, however, a step forward in two ways: they gave more accurate advice to corporate management as to when and how mergers would be examined and brought new economic ideas into antitrust enforcement, specifically the "structure-conduct-performance" model of industrial organization.

[2] Moreover, they raised the level of market concentration necessary for the government to scrutinize mergers, effectively treating competition as a means to greater efficiency rather than as an independent goal.

The 2010 revisions, while deemed by some to be an improvement,[10] attracted criticism from law and economics scholars who contend that they do not update efficiencies analysis,[11] that they may not be recognized by the courts[12] and that they do not embody principles that reflect dynamic competition.