U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston blocked JetBlue’s planned $3.8 billion acquisition of ultra-low cost carrier Spirit Airlines after agreeing with the DOJ that the deal would reduce the availability of low-priced air tickets. The ruling marked a victory for the Biden administration in its efforts to preserve competition among the lowest cost airlines to ensure that air travel remains affordable for more U.S. consumers and raised doubts about another recently proposed deal. Read more.
Young said the proposed merger “does violence to the core principle of antitrust law: to protect the United States’ markets, and its market participants, from anticompetitive harm.”
The U.S. Supreme Court this week is set to hear a bid by commercial fishermen to avoid costs associated with a government-run fish conservation program in a dispute that gives its conservative justices another chance to curb the regulatory powers of federal agencies. Read more about tomorrow’s oral arguments.
