According to antitrust litigators, fears that a lengthy government shutdown could grind the civil docket to a halt or cause the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to demand more information from merging parties have not materialized.
McCarter partner and former DOJ antitrust attorney Robin Crauthers spoke with The National Law Journal and noted that parties continue to file Hart-Scott-Rodino Act premerger notifications to the FTC and DOJ without any issues since the shutdown began on October 1.
“On the HSR side of things, the government is open,” Robin said. “They are accepting the filings. We are not seeing any meaningful delay in the acceptance of [HSR] filings.”
Robin also noted that while some of the federal government’s antitrust cases have been stayed during the shutdown, “Private litigation has not been affected.”