The Department of Justice ("DOJ") announced a new
initiative to terminate "legacy" antitrust judgments that
"no longer protect competition." In 1979, the DOJ adopted
a general practice to include sunset provisions that automatically
terminate judgments, typically 10 years after entry. However, prior
to that time, the DOJ often entered into final judgments that did
not include express termination dates. There are nearly 1300 such
legacy judgments that remain open on the dockets of courts
nationwide. According to the DOJ, the vast majority of them no
longer protect competition due to changes in industry conditions,
economics, or law.
The Antitrust Division of the DOJ indicated that it will review
all of the legacy judgments to identify those to be terminated. The
Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division said that
this initiative is focused on legacy judgments that "do little
more than clog court dockets, create unnecessary uncertainty for
businesses, or,
