FTC Finalizes Long-Awaited Final Rule With Significant Changes To HSR Act Filings

Key Takeaways

1. Although the Final Rule includes less extensive changes than those originally proposed, these changes will significantly increase the cost and the time required to prepare filings.

NOTE: The FTC estimates that on average the changes will increase the time required to prepare an HSR filing by 68 hours and in some cases may increase the time by 121 additional hours.

2. The Final Rule imposes a number of new requirements on filing parties, including:

(1) collecting and providing competitive analysis documents from a broader scope of custodians and "ordinary course" documents related to competition;

(2) submitting descriptive information about the parties' products, services, competitive overlaps, and supplier-customer relationships;