The U.S. Department of Justice recently made available the Settlement Agreement in the case involving the transportation of frozen fish from Alaska to New England via Canada allegedly in violation of the Jones Act. The Settlement Agreement was provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. It was not included in the case docket when the Stipulation for Dismissal was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska in February 2024.

On June 27, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it will issue a 132-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking drafted in concurrence with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that, if implemented, would bring sweeping changes to the U.S. merger review process. The proposed changes would require merging parties reporting transactions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) to collect and submit to the FTC and DOJ significantly more information than is currently reported in the HSR form, likely significantly lengthening the time and expense associated with reporting transactions under the HSR Act. Indeed, the FTC’s own estimate is that the number of hours required to prepare an average HSR filing will increase nearly four-fold from 37 to 144 hours. Although the FTC states in its press release that the purpose of the proposed changes is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of merger reviews, the additional burden on merging parties will be substantial.