On Nov. 10, 2011, a district court enjoined tax preparer H&R Block's proposed $287.5 million acquisition of 2SS Holdings, a provider of digital tax preparation software. The court, which was presented with dueling definitions of the relevant tax-preparation product market, determined that the relevant product market consisted of only "digital do-it-yourself tax preparation products," and not other tax preparation methods (such as hiring a tax professional or completing one's own tax return manually) as had been urged by the merging parties. In so doing, the court employed the so-called "hypothetical monopolist test" endorsed by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission in their 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines. On Nov. 15, 2011, H&R Block announced its decision to abandon the proposed acquisition.
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