New Directions In Antitrust Enforcement: Obama Appoints Christine Varney To Head DOJ Antitrust Division

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New Directions In Antitrust Enforcement: Obama Appoints Christine Varney To Head DOJ Antitrust Division

During the presidential campaign, now-President Obama vowed to

"reinvigorate antitrust enforcement."1 He

sharply criticized the Bush administration as having the

"weakest record of antitrust enforcement of any administration

in the last half century."2 In particular, Obama

faulted the Bush administration's record in merger challenges.

He has cited statistics showing that between 2001 and 2006, the

antitrust agencies challenged mergers at less than half the rate of

challenges during the prior four years under the Clinton

administration.3 Obama thus promised to "step up

review of merger activity and take effective action to stop or

restructure those...

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