Most mergers, once they close, are done deals.
This one wasn’t.
In 2017, Ottobock quietly acquired Freedom Innovations—a smaller but innovative rival in advanced prosthetics.
The deal flew under the radar. It didn’t trigger review under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act, so it closed without scrutiny.
A few months later, the Federal Trade Commission stepped in.
Three years later, the merger was unwound.
Why this case matters
This is one of the rare examples where U.S. antitrust authorities successfully “unscrambled the eggs”—forcing a completed merger to be reversed.
The case turned on three core ideas:
Market definition matters
The FTC argued for a narrow market (advanced prosthetic knees only), where the two firms competed closely.Substitution wasn’t enough
The defense claimed customers could switch to cheaper mechanical alternatives—but the evidence didn’t support it.Innovation competition counts
The concern wasn’t just prices—it was the loss of a future rival and next-generation products.
The big takeaway
Deals that fall below reporting thresholds aren’t invisible.
They’re just harder to detect—and harder to unwind.
That’s why cases like this are rare. But when agencies act, the consequences can be significant.
What’s next
In an upcoming EconWorks series, I’ll run this case through an AI framework:
What would AI flag as the weakest arguments?
Where does it agree—or disagree—with the court?
What does that tell us about modern antitrust analysis?
Stay tuned.
— EconWorks
