The One Agency Act would move the primary enforcement of federal antitrust laws from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to the Department of Justice (DOJ), specifically its Antitrust Division. The bill lays out a structured transition: all FTC antitrust actions, personnel, assets, and funding would be transferred to DOJ during a transition period that starts at the act’s effective date and ends no later than one year after, with a possible extension of up to 180 days by the Attorney General. During the transition, the DOJ would take over ongoing investigations and actions, while allowing limited continuity by deputizing former FTC antitrust staff if appropriate. The Act also requires DOJ to handle premerger notification filings (the HSR process) and to amend or rescind several statutes and regulations that currently reference the FTC’s antitrust role. Overall, the bill represents a sweeping centralization of antitrust enforcement authority in DOJ and is accompanied by numerous technical amendments to related laws to reflect that shift.
Key Points
- 1Transfer of antitrust enforcement to DOJ
- 2- All FTC antitrust actions, employees, assets, and funding would transfer to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division during the earlier of a DOJ-determined date or the end of the transition period (up to about one year, with a possible 180-day extension).
- 3- FTC antitrust employees would be assigned to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division; DOJ may use former FTC facilities temporarily and can restructure the Antitrust Division as needed to implement the shift.
- 4Transition rules and ongoing matters
- 5- No new FTC antitrust actions may be opened during the transition, and ongoing actions would be continued under DOJ direction. The Attorney General can deputize former FTC antitrust employees to continue unresolved actions, with consent.
- 6- Open investigations and court actions supervised by an FTC antitrust unit before the effective date would be transferred to DOJ as soon as practicable; consent decrees entered by the FTC before the effective date would, at the end of the transition, be handled by the Attorney General (with limited ability for the FTC to deputize staff to enforce decrees in the FTC process if necessary).
- 7Premerger notification and other functions
- 8- The Attorney General would take over premerger notification filings (the HSR process) that relate to antitrust enforcement, with no implied change to the underlying legal requirements for filing.
- 9Legal and statutory reforms
- 10- The bill would make broad technical and conforming amendments to the Clayton Act, the FTC Act, and related statutes, effectively removing many references to the FTC and substituting the Attorney General/DOJ as the lead enforcement authority.
- 11- It repeals or repurposes numerous provisions across related acts (Webb-Pomerene, Wool/Fur/Textile labeling acts, Antitrust Civil Process Act, International Antitrust Enforcement Assistance Act, and others) to align with DOJ leadership of antitrust enforcement.
- 12Effective date and scope
- 13- The act takes effect at the start of the first fiscal year that is at least 90 days after enactment, with the transition period and all transfers governed by the plan set out in the bill.