What happened
The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division launched a joint public inquiry Wednesday seeking comment on the effectiveness of the updated Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification form, after a court ruling forced the agencies to resume accepting the prior version of the filing materials.
The updated form took effect in February 2025 and was in place for more than a year before a federal district court vacated it in February 2026, according to the FTC announcement. The agency said a U.S. Court of Appeals denied the commission’s motion for a stay pending appeal earlier this month.
As a result, the agencies are again accepting HSR filings using the form and instructions that were in place before the updated form took effect. The FTC and DOJ said they will also continue accepting filings made under the updated form and instructions when parties voluntarily submit them.
The FTC said it continues to believe the older, nearly 50-year-old form is insufficient for reviewing modern mergers and acquisitions. Regardless of the outcome of the litigation challenging the updated form, the commission said it is considering whether to begin a new rulemaking process.
The inquiry asks whether the updated form helps the agencies identify potentially anticompetitive mergers more efficiently and determine more quickly whether a deal warrants a second request for an in-depth antitrust investigation. Under the HSR Act, parties to certain mergers and acquisitions must submit premerger notification forms disclosing information about their proposed deal and business operations, giving the agencies a short initial review period that is typically 30 days.
The agencies also said they want to assess whether the updated form’s requirements impose burdens on filers that outweigh the usefulness of the information provided to enforcers. They said they are considering whether additional modifications may be needed in light of developments affecting the HSR review process over the past year.
Public comments are due by May 26, 2026, and the agencies said the information will inform future action related to the premerger notification and report form.