Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: FTC announces 2014 thresholds for Clayton Act antitrust reviews, (Jan 17, 2014)

The FTC announced today that it has revised the thresholds that determine whether companies are required to notify federal antitrust authorities about a transaction under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act. The FTC also announced revisions to the thresholds that trigger a prohibition preventing companies from having interlocking memberships on their corporate boards of directors.

The HSR Act requires companies to notify authorities if the size of the parties at issue and the value of a transaction exceeds the filing thresholds, absent an applicable exemption. The FTC is required to revise various thresholds set forth in the HSR Act annually, based on the change in gross national product. For 2014, the size of transaction threshold for reporting proposed mergers and acquisitions subject to enforcement under Section 7A of the Clayton Act will increase from $70.9 million to $75.9 million. The revised thresholds under Section 7A will apply to all transactions that close on or after the effective date of the notice, which is 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

The new thresholds for the prohibition on interlocking directorates under Section 8 of the Clayton Act are $29,945,000 for Section 8(a)(1) and $2,994,500 for Section 8(a)(2)(A). The figures for Section 8 become effective immediately upon publication of notice in the Federal Register.

The Commission vote to approve the Federal Register notices announcing the threshold revisions was 4-0.

News: Antitrust FederalTradeCommissionNews