DealLawyers.com Blog

After the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated the final rules implementing the FTC & DOJ’s overhaul of the HSR reporting regime that went into effect last year, the FTC filed — and the district court swiftly denied — an emergency motion for stay. But the FTC also filed an emergency motion for stay pending appeal, which the Fifth Circuit granted late last week. This Fenwick alert says that the case schedule has briefing on the underlying motion complete by February 26. It also shares these key takeaways and recommendations:

– Parties with transactions requiring HSR notifications should, for now, continue to prepare those filings under the new rules and use the new form.

– The rules at issue only affect the amount and kind of information that must be included in a party’s filing. They have no impact on which transactions are subject to HSR requirements.

– If the HSR requirements revert to the rules in effect prior to February 10, 2025, deal parties may face significantly less time and expense in preparing their filings, with corresponding benefits to overall deal timelines.

– Meredith Ervine