US Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi said the government wants to improve the guidance it gives businesses about corporate collaborations in hopes of making antitrust enforcement more predictable. Speaking at a conference Monday in Washington, DC, Assefi said “having clear, stable guidance for the business community is a critical feature of a vigorous pro-enforcement agenda.”
US Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi said the government wants to improve the guidance it gives businesses about corporate collaborations in hopes of making antitrust enforcement more predictable. Speaking at a conference* Monday in Washington, DC, Assefi said “having clear, stable guidance for the business community is a critical feature of a vigorous pro-enforcement agenda.”
Assefi told the gathering of antitrust lawyers, state and federal prosecutors, academics and media representatives that the Department of Justice is considering whether to supplement its merger guidelines by reinstituting the Competitor Collaboration Guidelines that were withdrawn in December 2024.
The antitrust agencies put out a call for more information about “the value and potential content of guidance concerning the range of collaborations utilized to drive innovation and promote competition in the modern economy” (see here).
In February, the DOJ and US Federal Trade Commission opened a public inquiry seeking comments on whether the agencies should revise and reissue that guidance (see here). Comments are due April 24.
Assefi said the government hopes the public comments provide a better sense for how “we can best serve the many law-abiding businesses that want to do the right thing and comply with the antitrust laws.”
New types of competitor collaborations, joint ventures, and alliances, including those facilitated by new technologies in recent years, have led to increased requests by the antitrust bar for clarity regarding their treatment under the antitrust laws.
One of the specific areas of inquiry on which the FTC and DOJ are seeking public input relates to topics that would benefit from additional guidance — for instance, joint licensing arrangements and conditional dealing with competitors.
MLex reported earlier this month concerns that the DOJ and FTC’s joint inquiry on collaborations is an invitation for heavy lobbying from the antitrust bar seeking to influence enforcement of antitrust laws (see here).
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson recently highlighted the power that such guidance can have on influencing corporate behavior through mechanisms like law firm client alerts. But recent communications suggest that lawyers are gearing up to educate Trump administration enforcers about where they should draw lines between lawful and unlawful collaborations between competitors.
*“The Washington Antitrust and Digital Markets Forum," MLex, George Washington University Competition Law Center, Forum Global, Washington, DC, March 23, 2026.
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