The Federal Trade Commission, which under the Biden administration has been highly skeptical of mergers, has sent shockwaves through the deal-making community by recently using a long-ignored provision of a federal antitrust law to force drastic changes to a $5.2 billion natural-gas-industry deal.
The agency flexed its regulatory muscle by citing the Clayton Act’s Section 8, which bars competing companies from having “interlocking directorates”—an arrangement where a person simultaneously serves as a director of multiple companies. It was the first time in 40 years the FTC had invoked Section 8.
