Washington, D.C. – In response to news that the Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously to finalize the FTC and Department of Justice’s updated HSR form – a key pre-merger filing document that has not been updated since 1978 – to modernize and streamline the merger review process, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“This change is very simple and long overdue,” said Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberty Project. “It requires big corporations and private equity funds who want to engage in big acquisitions to actually tell the government what they are doing. The result is that enforcers will more easily be able to challenge unfair mergers while quickly clearing mergers that pose no legal problem. The information will also be shared with the Department of Defense, so it will help defense planners manage the defense industrial base more effectively.”

The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act was passed in 1976 to provide agencies with information about mergers before they occur. By imposing a waiting period on the consummation of mergers exceeding certain thresholds, it allows both the agencies and the merging parties an opportunity to discuss the merger’s competitive impact and whether a challenge in court is likely. This leads to abandoned mergers and prevents expensive litigation. The HSR Form and notification process is a critical deterrent to illegal mergers, simplifying the workload for agencies with limited resources tasked with reviewing hundreds or thousands of mergers every year.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.