ATR and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month: The Tipline for 19 April 2022

When it rains, it pours. The past four weeks have not been very kind to antitrust enforcers at the Department of Justice. After failing for a second time to secure convictions of any of the 10 broiler chicken defendants that it accused of price-fixing, federal juries last week acquitted the defendants accused in the Antitrust Division's novel criminal labour cases. The government is now hoping that April showers may bloom something a little sweeter – like a preliminary injunction against a sugar merger.