FTC Revives Merger Reporting Requirements for Startup Deals (1)

The Federal Trade Commission voted along party lines to rescind a decades-old policy that limited the agency’s ability to track the ongoing acquisitions of companies that were flagged in previous deals for competition issues.

FTC Chair Lina Khan and her two fellow Democrats at a meeting Wednesday voted to repeal the agency’s 1995 policy statement on “prior approval and prior notice provisions” in merger cases. The statement had loosened merger review reporting requirements for acquisitions of startups and other smaller companies. Before 1995, companies that had settled with the FTC to get approval of an acquisition had to notify the ...