Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: FTC, Antitrust Division extend comment period on reviving competitor collaboration guidance, (Apr 17, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:National Community Pharmacists Assn | National Community Pharmacists Association
Guidelines from 2000 were withdrawn in December 2024 without replacements.
As the federal antitrust agencies consider reviving guidance for the business and legal community to assess the likelihood of antitrust challenges to business collaborations, the comment period has been extended through May 21, 2026. The original deadline was April 24.
Latest inquiry. In February, the FTC and the Antitrust Division launched a joint public inquiry regarding possible guidance on collaborations among competitors. The original deadline for submitting comments for the inquiry was April 24. The extension is intended to “give all stakeholders more time to provide fulsome input on the development of up-to-date guidance to the business community, building on the previous 2000 Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors.”
Omeed A. Assefi, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division, told attendees of a March 23 George Washington Law School conference that his agency was looking to improve guidance “to provide more predictability.” Noting that “having clear, stable guidance for the business community is a critical feature of a vigorous pro-enforcement agenda,” Assefi pointed to “reinstituting and improving upon the Competitor Collaboration Guidelines.”
Withdrawn guidance. In December 2024, the agencies jointly withdrew guidance that had been issued in 2000. The agencies took the position that guidelines “no longer provide[d] reliable guidance about how enforcers assess the legality of collaborations involving competitors.” No guidance has since been issued in place of the 2000 guidelines.
At the time of the withdrawal, the two Republicans on the Commission—then-Commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak—questioned the decision to withdraw the guidance without a replacement in the waning days of the Biden Administration.
Early comment submissions. More than a dozen comments submitted by interested parties, including scholars, companies, and trade groups, such as the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), have already been posted on Regulations.gov. The NCPA warned the agencies to proceed with caution.
“In the pharmacy and [pharmacy benefit manager] sectors in particular, competitors have used joint programs, shared platforms, and integrated arrangements as vehicles for coordinating the prices they pay to pharmacies, suppressing reimbursements, and insulating themselves from competitive pressure,” the trade group explained in an April 14 submission. “[C]ollaboration guidance has historically been invoked by antitrust defendants to shield anticompetitive conduct from enforcement, and any updated guidance should be drafted so as not to constrain the Agencies’ discretion to challenge conduct that harms competition.”
The extension of the comment period will give more interested parties time to weigh in on future guidelines.
Companies: National Community Pharmacists Assn
News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews FederalTradeCommissionNews GCNNews