On August 13, 2025, President Trump revoked Executive Order 14036 "Promoting Competition in the American Economy," a signature Biden-era antitrust and competition policy. As discussed in our prior client alert, the Executive Order, which issued in July 2021, directed more than 70 agency actions to address perceived market concentration and expand protections for consumers and workers, including initiatives on non-compete clauses, right-to-repair, and fee transparency. Its repeal marks a significant shift away from a top-down competition policy toward a more traditional, case-by-case law-enforcement approach. The following provides an overview of the revocation and key considerations for antitrust compliance and merger control going forward.
Biden-Harris Executive Order on Competition
On July 9, 2021, then-President Biden signed Executive Order 14036, on "Promoting Competition in the American Economy." Citing "Federal Government inaction" over economic consolidation, the Executive Order set forth 72 initiatives for multiple federal agencies to address these perceived competition issues, most notably in the agricultural, IT, pharmaceutical and health care sectors. The Executive Order also established a "White House Competition Council" to coordinate the implementation of these initiatives. The initiatives included, but were not limited to:
- Urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to consider revising its then-current Merger Guidelines to allow for greater merger scrutiny;
- Urging the FTC to use rulemaking to "curtail the unfair use of non-compete clauses";
- Requiring Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a plan to address "excessive pricing of prescription drugs";
- Requiring the Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue rules requiring airlines to refund fees for services they fail to adequately provide, such as substantially delayed baggage delivery;
- Requiring the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to adopt "net neutrality rules" weakened during the first Trump administration; and
- Encouraging various federal agencies to take actions making it easier for equipment purchasers to repair their own equipment without the involvement of the equipment manufacturers.
The Executive Order drew mixed reactions throughout the course of the Biden Administration. Supporters lauded the Executive Order as taking an aggressive, "whole government" approach to addressing perceived concentration across key industries and thereby increasing the welfare of workers, farmers, small businesses, startups, and consumers. Detractors criticized the Executive Order as overly relying on ex ante government prescriptions of uncertain legal authority and questioned whether it would meaningfully improve outcomes for the constituencies it sought to benefit.
Attempts by the agencies to implement the Executive Order have also been mixed. For example, the FTC and DOJ issued stricter Merger Guidelines in 2023 and, in 2024 the FTC, voted along party lines to finalize a rule purporting to ban the vast majority of employee non-compete agreements. However, as we subsequently reported, two federal courts, one in Texas and another in Florida, found the FTC's non-compete ban to be unlawful, with the Texas court issuing a broad order barring the non-compete ban from taking effect nationwide.
Trump Administration Revocation
On August 13, 2025, President Trump formally revoked Executive Order 14036. Both the FTC and DOJ issued press releases applauding the Executive Order's revocation. FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson noted that the Executive Order "encouraged top-down competition regulations, and established a flawed philosophical underpinning for the Biden-Harris Administration's undue hostility toward mergers and acquisitions." Deputy Attorney General Gail Slater, who heads the DOJ Antitrust Division, commended the Trump administration for abandoning the Executive Order's "overly prescriptive and burdensome approach," and instead advocated for an "American First Antitrust" approach focused on "empowering the American people in the free markets, not enabling regulators and bureaucrats to prescribe outcomes."
Legal and Policy Implications
Certain Biden-era antitrust initiatives, such as the revised Merger Guidelines issued by the FTC and DOJ in 2023 and the new HSR form announced in October 2024, have remained in place, with no sign from Trump Administration officials of backtracking on these initiatives. Trump Administration officials have also backed the continued use of antitrust enforcement to protect workers' wages and working conditions. Nevertheless, the revocation of Executive Order 14036 reflects a broader redirection of other major areas federal competition policy, including:
- De-prioritization of certain Biden regulatory agenda items. At least some of the Biden-era initiatives required under Executive Order 14036 are likely to fall by the wayside. For example, on March 7, 2025, the FTC filed motions to pause the FTC's appeals of the above-mentioned cases that found the FTC's non-compete ban to be unlawful, with Chairman Ferguson noting that the Commission needed to deliberate whether "it's in the public interest to continue defending this rule."
- Shift back to traditional enforcement approach, but with specific areas of focus. The DOJ and FTC are likely to revert to a more traditional, case-by-case approach to antitrust enforcement under existing statutes, rather than pursuing specific policy initiatives through rulemaking and other ex ante measures. At the same time, the Trump Administration has taken steps to use the antitrust laws in particular areas of focus of interest specific to the Administration, including investigating alleged coordination surrounding DEI activity and discrimination against certain political viewpoints.
- Increased flexibility in merger control enforcement. The DOJ and FTC have reinstated the practice of granting "early termination" of HSR waiting periods for uncontroversial transactions, and have signaled a greater willingness to resolve cases through targeted consent decrees rather than seeking to block the transaction in litigation.
- Sector-specific, deregulatory executive orders. Since taking his second term, President Trump has signed Executive Order 14267, requiring federal agency heads to review and report existing regulations that create competitive barriers, with an eye towards recission or modification. On the same day he revoked Executive Order 14036, he issued a separate Executive Order easing regulatory barriers to commercial space activity. It would not be unreasonable to expect similar deregulatory executive orders targeting other strategic industries.
This landscape may reduce coordinated federal pressure in certain industries but will still require vigilance in traditional antitrust review processes, particularly for mergers and conduct that attract case-specific scrutiny.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
