Antitrust and competition enforcers around the world remain vigilant in investigating and prohibiting “gun jumping” — the unlawful integration or coordination of parties to a transaction prior to closing. It seems every year the U.S. antitrust enforcers (the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission) investigate and challenge a handful of gun-jumping situations.

However, the U.S. agencies are not alone in raising concerns about this behavior — the European Commission, the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM), Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) and other authorities have also flagged the issue recently. Therefore, companies engaging in mergers or acquisitions should heed the guidance from antitrust counsel. Failure to do so can produce disruption and delay in closing a transaction, as well as significant civil fines and potentially disgorgement.

In the United States, the two relevant antitrust statutes are the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) and Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The HSR Act requires parties to a notifiable transaction to file notices with the FTC and DOJ and observe a statutory waiting period before closing the transaction. Before the waiting period expires, companies may engage in integration planning to hit the ground running immediately after the transaction closes.