# Celler-Kefauver Act **Signed:** December 29, 1950 by Harry S. Truman Closed the "asset loophole" in §7 of the [[Clayton Antitrust Act]]: as written in 1914, §7 reached only acquisitions of a competitor's *stock*, so a firm could buy a rival's assets outright and escape review entirely. Celler-Kefauver also extended §7 beyond horizontal deals to reach **vertical and conglomerate** acquisitions. This is the statutory engine of the structural merger era. Within twelve years it produced [[Brown Shoe v. United States]] (1962) and the incipiency-and-submarkets framework, then [[United States v. Philadelphia National Bank]] (1963) and the structural presumption, then [[United States v. Von's Grocery]] (1966) — a case blocking two Los Angeles grocers with 7.5% combined share, which prompted Justice Stewart's dissenting line that in §7 litigation "the Government always wins." The [[Merger Guidelines]] of 1968 codified that approach; the 1982 revision replaced it with the HHI and the hypothetical-monopolist test. The statute never changed. > Stub — fill out. See [[US Antitrust and Monopoly Timeline]].