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Andrew G. Berg advises clients on litigation, mergers and acquisitions, and other antitrust and competition-related matters before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), state attorneys general, and in private litigation. Andrew's practice includes a full range of antitrust transactional and mergers and acquisitions experience, including Hart-Scott-Rodino filings at the FTC and DOJ, and related merger analysis issues. He also counsels and litigates unfair and deceptive trade practice matters involving advertising, marketing, and financial and credit practices.

Andrew represents clients in every aspect of FTC and DOJ investigations, inquiries and litigation. At the FTC, this includes pre-complaint investigations, discovery and investigational hearings, complaint recommendations before the Bureau Directors' offices and the Commissioners' offices, and enforcement litigation in both federal and administrative law courts. At the DOJ, this includes complaint recommendations before the Assistant Attorney General. His practice also involves interfacing with congressional and other federal regulatory agencies on issues relating to law enforcement and public policy issues at the FTC and DOJ and on related trade regulation issues.

Andrew has represented clients in a large number of industry sectors during his twenty-nine years in private sector law practice in the antitrust and trade regulation areas. He has represented clients in nearly every industry sector that falls within the FTC's and the DOJ Antitrust Division's law enforcement jurisdictions, including:

  • consumer retailing (supermarkets, general merchandise, department stores and specialty retailers such as office products, hospitality and gasoline retailing);
  • computers, computer software and semi-conductor chips;
  • travel and transportation-related services (automobile rentals, airlines, global distribution systems, and freight shipping);
  • media and publishing (newspapers, book publishing and retailing, and music);
  • entertainment (motion pictures and satellite radio);
  • telecommunications;
  • electricity and energy-related products and services;
  • forest products, including newsprint;
  • consumer products, goods and services;
  • health-care services and pharmaceutical products, including branded and generic drugs and nutraceuticals;
  • natural resources discovery and mining, including oil and gas;
  • securities-industry and related financial sector services (including banking, credit card services, credit reporting, and third-party debt collection);
  • trade associations and standards-setting organizations; and
  • a wide variety of manufacturing industry products and services.

Prior to joining the firm, Andrew practiced law as a partner in the Washington, D.C. offices of three national law firms. He also has served as Senior Attorney Advisor to a Federal Trade Commissioner where he formulated policy and voting recommendations on FTC enforcement and regulatory matters and prepared Commission adjudicatory opinions and congressional testimony. Before joining the FTC in 1983, he was in private practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, concentrating in antitrust, trade regulation, and government regulation matters.

Andrew has authored numerous law review articles and has participated in many professional panels examining current antitrust and mergers and acquisitions-related issues, as well as deceptive and unfair practices issues.

Andrew's concentrations include:

Antitrust and Competition:

  • Mergers and acquisitions and competitor collaborations under Section 7 of the Clayton Act
  • “Hart-Scott-Rodino” pre-merger notification filings and related transactional issues under Section 7A of the Clayton Act
  • Restraints of trade (including price-fixing, group boycotts, exclusive dealing arrangements, customer and territorial allocations, resale price maintenance and pre-merger coordination) under Section 1 of the Sherman Act
  • Monopolization and attempts to monopolize (including predatory conduct) under Section 2 of the Sherman Act
  • Discrimination in pricing and promotional services and allowances under the Robinson-Patman Act
  • Unfair methods of competition under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act
  • Related acts or practices under state antitrust acts and state “baby” FTC Acts

Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices:

  • Marketing practices, including deceptive telemarketing and direct mail marketing, retail point-of-sale disclosures and related consumer disclosure requirements, internet and telecommunications fraud, fraudulent business opportunities, deceptive commercial emailing under the CAN-SPAM Act and Rule, pay-per-call services, warranty rules, fraudulent business, investment and work-at-home schemes, and sweepstakes and games of chance
  • Advertising practices, including deceptive advertising and internet marketing such as spyware
  • Financial practices, including data security and privacy, identity theft, predatory or discriminatory lending practices, unfair or deceptive loan services, debt collection credit counseling and debt assistance practices, and consumer credit reporting
  • Related acts or practices under state deceptive acts statutes and state “baby” FTC Acts.
  • Self-regulatory proceedings, including National Advertising Division/Better Business Bureau advertising challenges, and Section 43(a) cases under the Lanham Act

Capabilities

Experience

(excludes non-competitively relevant HSR filings and representations)

  • Represented United Communications Group in its sale of its Oil Price Information Service division to IHS, Inc. 
  • Represented Vizient, Inc. in its purchase of the SCM operations of MedAssets, Inc. from Pamplona Capital. 
  • Represented Trafigura/Puma Energy in its purchase of the mid- and down-stream operations of Chevron in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 
  • Represented Trafigura/Puma Energy in its purchase of the refining and terminal assets of Gulf Oil/Capeco in Puerto Rico. 
  • Represented Rentokil in the sale of its North American pest control operations to Steritech. 
  • Represented Platform Systems/McDermid Chemical in its purchase of the industrial chemicals operations of OM Group. 
  • Represented Platform Systems/McDermid in its purchase of the agricultural chemicals operations of Arysta. 
  • Represented AstraZeneca in the sale of its Astrotech division to Dentsply Inc. 
  • Represented Brentwood Associations in its separate purchases of Sundance, Soft Surroundings, Allen Edmonds, and J McLaughlin. 
  • Represented Pet Supermarket in its sale to Roark Capital Group.
  • Represented QIAGEN Shared Services in its purchase of Enzymatics, Inc. 
  • Represented Bzinfin S.A. in its sale to Ener1.
  • Represented Metropolitan Health Networks in its purchase of Continucare Corp. 
  • Represented Metropolitan Health Networks in its sale to Humana Inc.  
  • Represented Engineering Solutions & Products, Inc. in its sale to Berkshire Hathaway.
  • Represented Grupo TACA in its sale to Avianca. 
  • Represented Canon Inc. in its purchase of Molecular Imprints, Inc.
  • Represented Optimal Solutions Integration in its sale to NTT Data.
  • Represented AB Volvo in the sale of its Volvo Aero division to GKN Plc. 
  • Represented AB Volvo in the sale of its North America heavy equipment rental operations to Platinum Equity. 
  • Represented Jarden Corporation in its purchase of Waddington Group. 
  • Represented LifeLock in its separate acquisitions of ID Analytics, Inc. and Lemon Wallet. 
  • Represented KRU Medical Ventures in the sale of its kidney dialysis operations to DaVita Inc. 
  • Represented RK Net Media/Manwin in its sale to Playboy Enterprises. 
  • Represented Jarden Corporation in the sale of its propane gas canister operations of its Coleman Outdoor Products division to Worthington Industries.
  • Represented Indiana Downs Casino in its sale to Centaur/Hoosier Park. 
  • Represented iGPS in its sale to Brambles/CHEP (pending and non-public). 
  • Represented Mid Oaks Investments in its purchase of CM Packaging by its D&W Fine Pack division. 
  • Represented Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc. in its billing card joint venture with several retail competitors (pending and non-public).
  • Apatech Limited in its acquisition by Baxter International Inc;
  • Grupo TACA Holding Limited in its acquisition by Aerovias Del Continente American S.A. Avianca;
  • Liquid Container LP in its acquisition by Blackstone Group and Graham Packaging;
  • Alamo Car Rental's acquisition of National Car Rental;
  • Delhaize America's separate acquisitions of the Hannaford, Harvey's, and Kash 'n Karry supermarket chains;
  • Envirotest's acquisition of Systems Control Inc;
  • Georgetown Partners’ acquisition of the automobile emissions testing assets of General Motors/Hughes;
  • Giant Eagle's separate acquisitions of Dave's and the Rini Rigo supermarket chains, and certain stores of Topps Supermarkets;
  • Griffith Oil's separate acquisitions of Shore Stop and Petro;
  • GTE's acquisition of Puerto Rico Telephone Company;
  • Matsushita's asset acquisition of semiconductor chip fabrication facilities in Puyallop, WA;
  • Matsushita's acquisition of MCA;
  • Ohio Edison's acquisition of Centerior Energy;
  • Republic Industries/AutoNation’s separate acquisitions of Alamo Car Rental, Snappy Car Rental, Spirit Rent-a-Car and Value Rent-a-Car;
  • Ritchie Brothers acquisition of Forke Brothers;
  • RSI's acquisition of Sterigenics;
  • Starbuck's retail joint venture with Kraft General Foods;
  • Tenet Healthcare's acquisition of St. Mary's Hospital;
  • The Belk Stores’ separate acquisitions of the Proffit/McCrae's and Parisian divisions of Sak’s Fifth Avenue;
  • U.S. Filter's acquisition of Culligan;
  • Viacom's acquisition of Paramount;
  • Hindalco's acquisition of Novelis;
  • National Car Rental's sale of its Europcar division to Eurazeo and its global marketing joint venture with Eurazeo;
  • Pueblo International in the acquisition of Amigo Supermarkets by a Fortune 50 Retailer;
  • Secure Computing's acquisition of CipherTrust;
  • Multiple separate Waste Management Inc. acquisitions of local and regional waste haulers;
  • Multiple separate AutoNation acquisitions of local retail automobile dealerships;
  • Boater's World in connection with the FTC investigation of West Marine's acquisition of the BoatUS retail stores;
  • Multiple separate proposed acquisitions by Mesa Petroleum/T. Boone Pickens-affiliated entities;
  • Hoylake/Sir James Goldsmith’s proposed acquisition of British American Tobacco;
  • Georgetown Partners’ acquisition of cellular phone licenses and spectrum from Ameritech;
  • Georgetown Partners’ proposed licensing of satellite radio spectrum in connection with Sirius Radio’s acquisition of XM Satellite Radio;
  • SP Newsprint in connection with the DOJ investigation of Abitibi’s acquisition of Bowater and separately in connection with the acquisition of SP Newsprint by White Birch Company;
  • William Farley in connection with the FTC Hart-Scott-Rodino compliance investigation of the acquisition of West Point Pepperil;
  • Matheson Trigas in connection with the FTC investigation of the AirLiquide/BOC merger; and
  • American Stores in its acquisition of Lucky Stores.
  • Putnam-Berkeley in the FTC's Robinson-Patman Act book publishing investigation and administrative litigation;
  • Lotus Development and Adobe in multiple FTC and DOJ investigations of Microsoft;
  • Winn-Dixie and Albertson's in the FTC's separate slotting fee investigations;
  • Lotus Development in the FTC's software GSA price-fixing investigation;
  • Sidmak Laboratories in the FTC's generics pricing investigation;
  • Shell Oil in the FTC's price-gouging investigation following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; and 
  • Stamps.com in the Department of Justice’s Sherman Act investigation of Pitney Bowes.
  • LifeLock, Inc. and Richard Todd Davis in the FTC and multi-state Attorneys General investigations of their marketing and advertising practices for the LifeLock identity theft protection services;
  • Engineering Services Products Inc. in conjunction with a non-public regulatory investigation; 
  • Risk Management Alternatives in the FTC's Fair Debt Collection Practices Act/Fair Credit Reporting Act financial practices investigation;
  • Savvier Inc. in the FTC's federal court advertising practices enforcement action;
  • Motion Picture Association of America in the FTC’s media violence marketing practices investigation following the Columbine High School massacre;
  • Samsung in several FTC, California Attorney General and California District Attorney investigations and follow-on class action litigation in the computer monitor cases;
  • National Car Rental in multiple separate marketing, advertising and financial practices investigations by the FTC;
  • Revlon in two separate advertising practices investigations and FTC Act Section 5 litigation by the FTC;
  • IBM and Time Warner in FTC rulemakings under the Telemarketing Sales Rule;
  • Billing Concepts and Billing Services Group in multiple separate marketing practices investigations and enforcement litigations by the FTC, numerous state Attorneys General, and numerous state public service and public utility commissions;
  • ILD Communications in the FTC's 800 number investigation;
  • Sidney Frank Inc. in the FTC's marketing practices investigation;  
  • Samsung in Lanham Act 43(a) complaint brought by a competitor for various Samsung computer monitor advertising performance claims;
  • A national debt collections agency in connection with a pending FTC multiyear investigation of its compliance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act;
  • Chantal Pharmaceutical in connection with the FTC investigation of its advertising practices, and 
  • William Shell and NutraCorp in connection with an FTC order compliance investigation.

°The above representations were handled by Mr. Berg prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

Recognition & Leadership

  • Member, American Bar Association

Credentials

Education
  • J.D., Vanderbilt University Law School
    • Associate Articles Editor, Vanderbilt Law Review 
  • A.B., cum laude, Harvard College
Admissions
  • District of Columbia
  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Admitted in the District of Columbia. Not admitted in Massachusetts. Practice limited to federal antitrust law.