The Justice Department on Thursday gave an update on how its Antitrust Division works with state attorneys general on reviews of mergers whose effects are mostly within one state. The department said it generally focuses on deals with regional or national effects but will sometimes investigate local ones.
Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr. said principles of federalism guide the department to use its resources on mergers with regional or national implications. Federalism is the division of power between the federal government and the states. He said the department will sometimes use its discretion to look at local deals, including when an antitrust issue of national significance is involved.
Woodward said that for mergers of national importance, the department will generally form its own views on how to resolve an investigation. He said it may partner with state enforcers who offer to contribute distinctively to the investigation.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General G. Charles Beller of the Antitrust Division said federal and state law enforcers have different constituencies and distinct competencies. He said a constructive relationship includes deferring to the agency of relative competence on matters that affect distinctly federal or local interests. Beller said the division welcomes leadership from states in deals that involve uniquely local interests. He gave two examples: when the state is a purchaser that could suffer direct injury, or when possible effects on competition are limited to a single state.
The department said that since January 2026 the division’s merger review program has done four things. It partnered with the attorneys general of California and Tennessee on consent decrees with merging companies in the cement and asphalt industries. A consent decree is an agreement that settles a case. The department said those decrees resolve potential harm to competition in regions within the two states.
The division also referred investigations into asphalt markets in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to those states’ attorneys general. According to the department, the attorneys general then reached settlements with the parties that addressed their competition concerns in local markets. The division published a closing statement on Oct. 29, 2026, on successful referrals in two local asphalt merger investigations.
The department said the division has also jointly investigated both local and multistate mergers with state attorneys general when the deals raised issues that justified both federal and state involvement. It said the division has consulted and worked closely with state attorneys general on other local merger investigations as well.
The update cites two earlier actions. On May 21, 2026, the department required Taiheiyo Cement Corporation and CalPortland Company to sell assets to proceed with acquiring ready-mix concrete assets from Vulcan Materials Company. On Aug. 7, 2026, it announced a partnership with the Tennessee attorney general to preserve competition for asphalt in western Tennessee.