Fix-It-First: A Seismic Shift in U.S. Antitrust Agency Approaches to Merger Remedies

Under their current leadership, the U.S. federal antitrust agencies have shown antipathy to resolving merger investigations through remedy undertaking that are embodied in consent decrees, preferring instead to seek to prohibit transactions outright. This sea change in merger enforcement policy is leading merging parties increasingly to contemplate “fix-it-first” strategies, whereby the parties modify the proposed transaction to address antitrust concerns — typically by reaching an agreeme