By Flavia Fortes ( September 17, 2026, 16:48 GMT | Insight) -- The US Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has asserted a leading role in national antitrust enforcement, arguing that federal authorities are best placed to weigh the economy-wide effects of conduct and transactions while state attorneys general remain essential partners on local matters. For mergers affecting the national economy, Congress gave federal enforcers primary responsibility for assessing transactions whose benefits and harms may not be evenly distributed among states, Stanley Woodward, associate attorney general at the Department of Justice, said in a speech Thursday on antitrust federalism.The US Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has asserted a leading role in national antitrust enforcement, arguing that federal authorities are best placed to weigh the economy-wide effects of conduct and transactions while state attorneys general remain essential partners on local matters. In a speech* on antitrust federalism in New York Thursday, Stanley Woodward, associate attorney general at the Department of Justice, defended the US system of overlapping federal, state and private enforcement, but said that system requires courts and enforcers to respect the distinct roles Congress assigned to each....
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