Sharis A. Pozen

Acting Assistant Attorney General
Antitrust Division

It has been an amazing year for the Antitrust Division, with numerous developments and successes on civil and criminal enforcement, international cooperation, and competition advocacy. Our continued focus on robust antitrust enforcement is reflective of the President’s and the Attorney General’s mandate for the revitalization of the Division’s efforts. Our efforts remain targeted at achieving the Division’s mission to preserve competition for the benefit of consumers.

As this year’s newsletter showcases, the Division has focused on those issues and industries which are essential to consumers’ everyday lives—including financial services, technology and telecommunications, real estate, health care, and agriculture, to name a few.

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Civil Program

The Antitrust Division has continued to aggressively protect consumers through its civil enforcement program. During the past year, premerger notifications under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act increased over 24 percent, and the Division’s merger enforcement activities have been correspondingly brisk.

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Criminal Program

Criminal enforcement continues to be a top priority of the Antitrust Division. The Division’s commitment to vigorous criminal enforcement was evident in the criminal program’s remarkably successful FY 2011. And that commitment remains evident in what is promising to be an equally successful FY 2012.

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Competition Advocacy and Policy

Promoting competition principles through broad advocacy efforts and outreach is among the Antitrust Division’s highest priorities. These efforts serve the Division’s goal of increasing awareness and understanding of the importance of competition and healthy markets among both Federal and State governments and regulators, the courts, the business community, and the general public.

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International Program

Over the past year, the Antitrust Division has engaged in international work of broad and varied dimensions. Two of the Division’s chief priorities in the international arena have been the intensification of cooperation with its international counterparts, and enhancing transparency and procedural fairness in antitrust enforcement around the world.

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Publications and Speeches

The Division publishes speeches, guidelines and policy statements, and other documents in order to provide clear guidance as to the legal and economic analytical framework under which it operates. This provides for more predictable antitrust enforcement and benefits business and consumers alike.

Recent speeches include Acting Assistant Attorney General Pozen’s November 17, 2011, Developments at the Antitrust Division & the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines—One Year Later. Recent testimony includes Pozen’s December 7, 2011, testimony before the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives.

Recent policy publications include the Statement of Antitrust Enforcement Policy Regarding Accountable Care Organizations Participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (October 20, 2011) and the Antitrust Division Policy Guide to Merger Remedies (June 2011).

In addition, the Economic Analysis Group (EAG) of the Antitrust Division disseminates research to inform interested individuals and institutions of EAG’s research program and to stimulate comment on economic issues related to antitrust policy and regulation. A full listing of those documents is available from the Economic Analysis Group Papers page.