FTC and DOJ Issue Fiscal Year 2025 Hart-Scott-Rodino Annual Report

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division released their 48^th Annual Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Report. This report summarizes the agencies' merger enforcement efforts and provides fiscal year 2025 data on the Premerger Notification Program, which alerts the agencies to transactions that may substantially lessen competition in violation of federal law.

Enacted by Congress in 1976, the HSR Act gives the FTC and DOJ the opportunity to investigate and challenge mergers that are likely to harm consumers before injury occurs. The report explains that in fiscal year 2025, companies notified the agencies of 2,006 transactions under the HSR Act, of which approximately 31.8% were valued at more than $1 billion.

The FTC and DOJ took 18 merger enforcement actions to maintain competition in critically important markets, including healthcare, technology, energy, defense, consumer goods and services, labor and manufacturing. The Commission brought eight of these actions, all but one of which was reported pursuant to the HSR Act: three in which the Commission initiated litigation, three in which the Commission issued consent orders for public comment, and two that the parties abandoned before litigation commenced as a result of antitrust concerns raised during the investigation.

The Commission vote to issue the report was 2-0.