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{"sheet":"Coversheet","index":0,"n_rows":12,"n_cols":3,"rows_kept":12,"cut":false,"hidden":false,"merged":[]}
[]
[]
[null,"Prepared By:","Contributors:"]
[null,"Jones Walker LLP","Mark Cunningham"]
[]
[]
[]
["Sustainability and Competition Global Practice Guide"]
[]
["Report Generated: 11/19/2025"]
[]
["View your report results on next tab"]

{"sheet":"Sustainability and Competition ","index":1,"n_rows":11,"n_cols":2,"rows_kept":11,"cut":false,"hidden":false,"merged":[]}
["Question","USA (Federal Law)"]
["Lex Mundi Sustainability and Competition Global Practice Guide"]
["Are ESG measures/sustainability agreements included in your jurisdictional competition regime?","ESG-related unilateral conduct and collaborations are subject to scrutiny under existing long-standing federal and state antitrust laws in the United States.\n"]
["If ESG measures/sustainability agreements are not included in your jurisdictional competition regime, do you foresee any new regulations coming into place in 2022?","We do not foresee new antitrust laws/regulations specific to ESG coming into place in 2022.  However, the Federal Trade Commission (\"\nFTC\") is expected to update its so-called \nGreen Guide in the coming months. The \nGreen Guide provides guidance to businesses related to the 1) general principles that apply to all environmental marketing claims; 2) how consumers are likely to interpret particular claims and how marketers can substantiate these claims; and 3) how marketers can qualify their claims to avoid deceiving consumers. The \nFTC last updated the \nGreen Guide in 2012.\n"]
["Has your Authority issued any guidance on the role, if any, of ESG in the competition law analysis applied to mergers or other conduct?","U.S. regulators have not issued guidance specific to ESG in the context of either merger or conducting antitrust analysis.  However, public comments by senior antitrust officials in the U.S. Department of Justice shed some light on their views of the interconnection between ESG and antitrust law. One commented in a confirmation that ESG issues should not be a consideration in merger analysis unless they impact competition. Another published an op-ed in the wake of opening an investigation into emissions standards agreed upon between the State of California and automakers asserting that even the “\nloftiest of purported motivations do not excuse anti-competitive collusion among rivals.”  Various State Attorneys General also have made public statements expressing concern about ESG-related coordination. For example, the Arizona State Attorney General described ESG as the “\nbiggest antitrust violation in history” in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal and has launched an investigation into alleged coordination against businesses in the energy sector.\n"]
["Has your jurisdiction issued guidance regarding competitor collaborations or participating in industry working groups, and if so, do they specifically address ESG?","While antitrust regulators in the United States have not issued guidance specific to ESG, practitioners can look to the \nAntitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors, consent decrees, and other public pronouncements for guidance on how the U.S. Department of Justice and \nFTC are expected to analyze codes of conduct, standard setting, information sharing, joint purchasing, and other collective conduct.\n"]
["Can parties seek specific guidance from authorities on proposed ESG initiatives?","Mechanisms exist for obtaining formal and informal guidance from antitrust regulators in the United States. For example, parties may request a business review letter from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  However, the limited resources of the agencies may prevent the parties from obtaining a timely response.\n"]
["How, if at all, does your jurisdiction quantify or calculate the ESG effects?","The agencies have not issued guidance related to the quantification or calculation of ESG effects. On the other hand, public reports suggest that \nFTC staff have begun seeking information related to ESG in connection with their investigations of certain mergers.\n"]
["What does your legal authority currently permit even if your agency is not yet active on this topic?","Antitrust regulators in the United States are unlikely to challenge unilateral conduct related to ESG or collaborations to identify ESG best practices, establish voluntary codes of conduct, develop technology standards, or lobby federal and state governments. Rather, their focus will be on hard-core cartel conduct and efforts to exclude rivals or make them less efficient. ESG collaborations that impose undue burdens on labor markets or negatively impact workers, small and minority-owned businesses (including farms and ranches), and local, rural, and low-income communities also are likely to receive attention.\n"]
["Are there precedents that involved ESG/sustainability matters in your country? If so please provide a short description.","While several investigations of alleged collective anticompetitive conduct have been launched in recent years, they have not resulted in litigation or court precedents.\n"]
["Is there specific antitrust regulation in your jurisdiction to be aware of which might give rise to private or class action ESG litigation?","Class action antitrust litigation is common in the United States. However, to date, ESG-related class action litigation generally has been initiated based on alleged violations of environmental and securities laws and regulations rather than federal and state antitrust laws. Consumer class actions challenging alleged false and deceptive advertising and other so-called green-washing claims by businesses also are on the rise. These consumer protection claims likewise do not hinge on federal or state antitrust laws, but rather are grounded in state unfair trade practices and unfair competition laws.\n"]