2.2: Law Enforcement
Stop anticompetitive mergers and business practices through law enforcement Other Information:
This enforcement objective includes both obtaining orders to stop anticompetitive activity (either through litigation or by
consent) and ensuring that the remedies imposed by those orders are effective. Conduct that reduces competition is likely
to cause consumers to pay higher prices or enjoy lower quality than they otherwise would. Antitrust enforcement provides substantial
benefits to consumers by preventing anticompetitive mergers and other coordinated or unilateral conduct that is likely to
lessen competition. Strategies: • Continue to benefit consumers in markets involving billions of dollars in annual sales by
challenging anticompetitive mergers and other nonmerger anticompetitive conduct, negotiating consent orders, and winning litigated
orders, resulting in millions of dollars in consumer savings. • Negotiate merger and nonmerger consent orders and win litigated
orders that have significant remedial, precedential, and deterrent effects. • Improve negotiation and litigation skills through
continuous learning. • Apply the merger process reforms to conduct investigations more efficiently, in order to enhance enforcement
outcomes while minimizing burdens on business. • Improve the FTC’s capacity to promote consumer welfare by applying the information
gained through workshops, hearings, and research projects that improve its understanding of significant antitrust issues.
• Retain outside experts and consultants in relevant fields of expertise, as needed, when enforcement outcomes would be enhanced
by specialized supplementary resources. • Continue to integrate e-government initiatives into mission activities. • Ensure
that administrative litigation and adjudication reach a timely resolution. • Improve the integration of budget and performance
by linking goals and objectives to results; develop improved processes for use and analysis of management data. Annual and
Five-Year Performance Measures: - Achieve a positive result in at least 80% of cases in which the FTC takes enforcement action
each year - Take action against mergers likely to harm competition in markets with a total of at least $125B in sales over
5-year period; $25B in sales each year - Save consumers an estimated $2.5B over 5-year period through merger enforcement;
$500M each year - Save consumers at least six times the amount of agency resources allocated to the merger program over 5-year
period - Take action against nonmerger anticompetitive conduct in markets with a total of at least $40B in annual sales over
5-year period; $8B each year - Save consumers an estimated $400M over 5-year period through nonmerger enforcement; $80M each
year - Save consumers at least four times the amount of agency resources allocated to the nonmerger enforcement program over
5-year period
Indicator(s):
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