Plaintiff's Effort to Unwind Consummated Merger Upholded
Thursday, February 25, 2021 Federal antitrust enforcers have long succeeded at unwinding consummated mergers. 1 By contrast, private antitrust plaintiffs have not successfully forced companies to break up a completed acquisition. Until now. On February 18, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a historic decision in Steves and Sons, Inc. v. JELD-WEN, Inc., affirming a district court’s remedy of divestiture after a jury found a violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act in the door manufacturing industry. To the Fourth Circuit’s knowledge (and the cons...