Erik Herron

Acting Assistant Regional Director, Western Competition Group at Federal Trade Commission

Speaker

The FTC’s Western Competition Group (WCG) bridges a critical gap between federal and state-level antitrust enforcement by coordinating antitrust merger and conduct investigations with Western States’ Attorneys General in a range of industries. The WCG leverages the expertise of attorneys from the FTC’s San Francisco and Seattle Regional Offices.

Erik is an experienced antitrust attorney and litigator based in San Francisco. After graduating from New York University School of Law, Erik started his career at Davis Polk & Wardwell in Washington, DC. In 2019, he joined the FTC’s Mergers II Division and contributed significantly to several investigations, including Altria/Juul, Nvidia/Arm, Meta/Within, Axon/VieVu, and Qualcomm/Autotalks. In 2024, Erik transferred to the WCG where he led the Planned Companies/Guardian Services no-poach investigations and a non-public merger investigation. In December 2024, Erik was appointed Acting Assistant Regional Director of the WCG, in which position he filed the Commission’s recent Robinson-Patman Act lawsuit against PepsiCo and has been responsible for a number of non-public investigations. Erik also serves as a JAG Attorney with the Army Reserve.