Bars over time
In-Depth Merger Investigations (Second Requests)
Merger investigations in which the FTC or DOJ issued a second request, by federal fiscal year
Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.
Counted by the date the second request was issued. From the FTC and DOJ Hart-Scott-Rodino annual reports.
How many deals face an in-depth antitrust review each year. A second request adds months to a deal and often ends in a lawsuit, a settlement or an abandoned deal.
What this chart reads
- HSR Second Requests per Year (In-Depth Merger Investigations)as “Second requests”latest 2025-09-30
Sources
HSR Second Requests per Year (In-Depth Merger Investigations). Source: Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Hart-Scott-Rodino Annual Reports to Congress (ftc.gov/policy/reports/annual-competition-reports), Appendix A, Appendix B and Exhibit A. Public domain: "Most material on the FTC's website is considered work of the United States Government, meaning that the material is in the public domain and is not subject to copyright restrictions (17 U.S.C. 105)" (FTC website policy). Source: United States Federal Trade Commission, www.ftc.gov.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.