On May 13th, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved and
sent on to the full Senate the "Merger Filing Fee
Modernization Act of 2021." The Bill, sponsored by Senators
Amy Klobuchar and Chuck Grassley, and approved with bipartisan
support, would raise the filing fees under the Hart-Scott-Rodino
Act for large mergers and would require the fees to be adjusted
annually based on changes in the Consumer Price Index. (Currently,
the HSR Act's size-of-person and size-of-transaction tests are
adjusted annually, but not the filing fees.)
At present, there are three levels of filing fees for HSR
filings: (1) $45,000 for transactions valued at more than the
filing threshold but less than $100 million "AA"
("As Adjusted"); (2) $125,000 for transactions valued at
$100 million AA or more but less than $500 million AA ; and
$280,000 for transactions valued at more than $500 million AA.
