Top Department of Justice Official Tells Staff He Wants to Avoid Antitrust Trials

Stanley Woodward, a top Justice Department official, has told antitrust enforcers he prefers they stop taking cases to trial and settle them instead. Some lawyers at the department interpreted the comments from the department’s third-ranking official as a directive to resolve any litigation against companies and avoid future litigation. Woodward, who now directly oversees antitrust enforcement, has said internally that he favors avoiding drawn-out, manpower-intensive litigation. Woodward’s posture could weaken the department’s ability to challenge anticompetitive mergers and could put settlements of monopolization lawsuits on a faster track. The Justice Department is actively battling Apple and Visa in federal court over monopolization claims.