{"id":344,"date":"2022-11-09T13:45:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T17:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/?p=344"},"modified":"2022-11-09T13:45:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T17:45:31","slug":"board-directors-beware-u-s-antitrust-agencies-ramp-up-enforcement-of-interlocking-directorates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/2022\/11\/09\/board-directors-beware-u-s-antitrust-agencies-ramp-up-enforcement-of-interlocking-directorates\/","title":{"rendered":"Board Directors Beware: U.S. Antitrust Agencies Ramp Up Enforcement of Interlocking Directorates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicated a recent interest in enforcing Section 8 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits individuals from serving on boards of competing corporations, known as \u201cinterlocking directorates.\u201d (<i>See<\/i>\u00a015 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a019.) Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/directors-resign-boards-five-companies-response-justice-department-concerns-about-potentially\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has called Section 8<\/a>\u00a0an \u201cimportant but underenforced\u201d antitrust law. After DOJ announced a focus on Section 8, the agency reported that seven board members announced their resignations in response. Since then, DOJ has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-10-28\/blackstone-among-pe-firms-under-doj-antitrust-probe-into-overlapping-board-seats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">continued its focus on Section 8<\/a>, issuing civil investigative demands and confidential investigation letters to firms, including private equity funds and investors. Life sciences companies, and companies that invest in the life sciences industry, should be on the lookout for interlocking directorates, as there is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law360.com\/articles\/1542474\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">empirical evidence<\/a>\u00a0suggesting that the industry is particularly at risk of a Section 8 investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full text of this\u00a0<em>Alert<\/em> on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/alerts\/board_directors_beware_us_antitrust_agencies_ramp_up_enforcement_interlocking_directorates_1122.html\">firm website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicated a recent interest in enforcing Section 8 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits individuals from serving on boards of competing corporations, known as \u201cinterlocking directorates.\u201d (See\u00a015 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a019.) Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter\u00a0has called Section 8\u00a0an \u201cimportant but underenforced\u201d antitrust law. After DOJ announced &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/2022\/11\/09\/board-directors-beware-u-s-antitrust-agencies-ramp-up-enforcement-of-interlocking-directorates\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Board Directors Beware: U.S. Antitrust Agencies Ramp Up Enforcement of Interlocking Directorates&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[380,625,382,495,624,627,626,574],"ppma_author":[521],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-antitrust","tag-board-of-directors","tag-christopher-casey","tag-life-sciences-and-medical-technologies","tag-private-equity","tag-sarah-kulik","tag-sean-mcconnell","tag-u-s-department-of-justice"],"authors":[{"term_id":521,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"duanemorris3","display_name":"Duane Morris","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/843ff6e7a8fe5fc92109b47a45f34b6cf0ea499e6e788db23456c838b0ae6747?s=96&d=blank&r=g","author_category":"1","last_name":"Sullivan","first_name":"Margaret","job_title":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com","description":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\">Visit the Duane Morris website.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/lifescienceslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}