ANALYSIS: DOJ/FTC Early Termination Pause May Signal Changes

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have announced that all mergers and acquisitions subject to regulation under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act will have to sit out the statute’s full 30-day waiting period before combining operations.

This was a highly unusual move for the antitrust regulators. The change stands to impact roughly half of all deals that file notice with antitrust regulators under the HSR Act, and potentially signals a fundamental shift in the review process more broadly. The agencies didn’t signal when they will restart the discretionary program that allows some deals to close quickly, but when they do, there ...