antitrust

1. September 19, 2026News4 receipts3 min

   Two executive orders on beef: one tells USDA to expand investigations of meatpackers and report back in 60 days, the other opens the door to mandatory country-of-origin labeling and to delisting the gray wolf. Neither carries a dollar.

   Executive Orders 14424 and 14425, both signed September 4 and published September 10, address cattle. The first directs the Agriculture Secretary to prioritize and expand Packers and Stockyards Act investigations of meatpackers, increase staffing in three USDA offices, coordinate with the Justice Department under a 2025 memorandum, and report to the President within 60 days; it also promises a guaranteed loan program for small and regional beef processors, with no amount and no date. The second orders a 90-day review that may lead to mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef, directs Interior to decide whether the gray wolf and Mexican wolf have met recovery criteria for delisting, and tells every agency to make sure the measures reach consumers 'in the form of lower prices'. It states that the national cattle herd is at a 75-year low while beef demand has risen almost 10 percent in a decade, without sourcing either figure. Neither order creates an enforceable right.

   Also filed underexecutive-orderagriculturebeefranchersendangered-speciesfederal-register

2. September 17, 2026News2 receipts4 min

   A court ordered Google to wire its ad tools to a rival open-source standard, hand publishers their own data, and stop letting AdWords bid preferentially into its own exchange — under a monitor, for six years.

   On September 16 the Justice Department announced the remedies ruling in United States et al. v. Google LLC, the advertising-technology monopolization case in the Eastern District of Virginia. The relief is behavioral rather than structural, and specific: Google must build and support integrations between AdX and Prebid and between DFP and Prebid; AdX must submit real-time bids to competing publisher ad servers; publishers must be able to access and export their own data out of DFP and AdX; and AdWords — which DOJ says the court called Google's 'golden goose' — may not bid preferentially into AdX or other Google tools, and may not bid directly into DFP at all. A monitor and a technical committee will oversee compliance for six years, the length of the Final Judgment. DOJ says it 'continues to review the court's opinion' and will decide next steps.

   Also filed underdojgooglead-techcourt-recordsremedies

3. September 17, 2026News2 receipts3 min

   Beretta wanted up to 25% of Ruger and two seats on its board. The FTC says two seats between competitors is an illegal interlocking directorate, and took the seats away — with 30 days for the public to object.

   On September 16 the Federal Trade Commission accepted a proposed consent order resolving antitrust concerns over a stock purchase agreement between Beretta Holding S.A. and Sturm, Ruger & Co. Under the deal Beretta would raise its stake to as much as 25 percent of Ruger's outstanding shares and appoint two members of Ruger's board — which the FTC alleges would create an illegal interlocking directorate under Section 8 of the Clayton Act. The order bars Beretta from causing anyone who is not independent of Beretta to join Ruger's board, requires 15 days' advance written notice before any such appointment, and bars Beretta from hiring or entering financial relationships with an independent director it nominated until a year after that director leaves. The Commission voted 2-0; the public has 30 days to comment.

   Also filed underftcclayton-actinterlocking-directoratescomment-deadline

A record appears here because it carries antitrust in its own frontmatter. If a record you expected is missing, it was filed under a different subject — the full list is on the topics index.