Dechert’s antitrust group submitted comments today to U.S. antitrust agencies on their proposed top-to-bottom overhaul of premerger antitrust filings made under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seek to alter the HSR filing requirements to capture mountains of additional information that allegedly will enable the agencies to better evaluate the competitive impact of potential mergers. But several of these proposals exceed the agencies’ authority or lack a sufficient basis under the HSR Act. The expanded document requirements are excessive and vague. And the new disclosure requirements would chill private capital markets, harming American businesses, workers, and consumers.