Goldberg Discusses Government Antitrust Scrutiny of Airline Mergers in the New York Law Journal

08.30.2023

Stinson LLP Partner Roy Goldberg authored an article for the New York Law Journal, "US Airlines Face Heightened Merger Scrutiny From Democratic Officials."

The article discusses JetBlue's plan to acquire Spirit Airlines and explores how the heightened scrutiny by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division regarding the planned acquisition – leading to a trial scheduled for this October – reflects the DOJ's more strident antitrust enforcement posture in comparison to prior airline mergers.

Goldberg focuses on the Biden administration joining forces with state attorneys general from democratic strongholds to challenge the deal, and opines that the Biden administration is stricter on airline mergers than the Obama administration because "President Biden has largely relegated – with little or no supervision – antitrust and transportation policy to other, more progressive Democrats at the federal and state levels."

Goldberg also discusses how a democratic U.S. Senator has aggressively pushed the Department of Transportation into taking the "unprecedented independent threat" to block the airline merger, if for any reason the DOJ challenge fails or gets settled.

Goldberg focuses his practice on commercial and regulatory matters with an emphasis on the transportation industry. He helps airlines and other aviation industry entities in addressing regulatory challenges and in litigation over airport compliance with federal obligations, as well as defense of air carriers in class actions and other litigation. 

Sign in to the New York Law Journal to read the full article.