May 19, 2020
Antitrust: FTC Provides Guidance On HSR Filing Fees
The FTC recently blogged some reminders & tips on HSR filing fees. Paying the HSR filing fee in a timely manner is important, because the HSR waiting period doesn’t start running until the fee is paid. The FTC’s Premerger Notification Office can bounce a filing if the fee doesn’t show up in its account by the end of a two-day grace period, although it usually hasn’t done that. The blog says that’s about to change:
The PNO generally has not bounced filings when fees were received outside the two-day grace period, unless the delay affected the timing of the weekly merger screening review process. Going forward, in order to ensure consistency and give the agencies the maximum time allowed under the HSR Act to analyze the competitive effects of each transaction, the PNO will be strictly enforcing the two-day grace period.
The blog points out that it is up to the party paying the fee to determine when to initiate the wire so that the fee is received within the two-day grace period or earlier, and that the grace period isn’t meant to give filers extra time to initiate a wire or cover processing delays. Filers are urged to coordinate the filing fee process well in advance, and the blog offers tips on avoiding delays with wire transfers.
– John Jenkins