The FTC is fighting an uphill battle, given that it lost the lower-court fight and that the EU and Britain have signed off on the deal.
I mean, the lower court fight makes it an uphill battle, sure – they’re appealing a ruling. But the EU and UK regulatory positions aren’t going to be an input to US courts – that doesn’t make it any harder to get US courts to agree to block it.
They did kind of matter to US proceedings purely on the fact that if they hadn’t cleared regulatory issues elsewhere, the deal wouldn’t have already happened.
The fact that the deal already happened will make it substantially more difficult to succeed, because now you don’t have to stop a deal; you have to unravel an already completed one.
I mean, the lower court fight makes it an uphill battle, sure – they’re appealing a ruling. But the EU and UK regulatory positions aren’t going to be an input to US courts – that doesn’t make it any harder to get US courts to agree to block it.
They did kind of matter to US proceedings purely on the fact that if they hadn’t cleared regulatory issues elsewhere, the deal wouldn’t have already happened.
The fact that the deal already happened will make it substantially more difficult to succeed, because now you don’t have to stop a deal; you have to unravel an already completed one.