Those planning to offer their two cents on the proposed changes to the Horizontal Merger Guidelines got more time to do so.

In response to requests by some organizations, the Federal Trade Commission has extended the deadline for public comment on the proposed revisions to the joint FTC/Department of Justice Guidelines through June 4. The original 30-day comment period was set to expire on May 20.

Comments can be submitted online here.

The proposed revisions are the product of a process that began last September, which included a series of public workshops and a comment period to gather input on possible changes to the guidelines, which were issued in 1992 and last revised in 1997.

Overall, observers say the proposed changes largely serve to bring the formal written guidelines in line with the agencies' current approach to merger analysis. However, significantly, they shift the emphasis away from market definition, which has historically been the starting point for that analysis, and place more weight on fact-based evidence of whether a deal will result in anti-competitive effects. The draft also includes a new section on "Evidence of Adverse Competitive Effects" that discusses categories and sources of evidence that the agencies have found informative in predicting the likely competitive effects of mergers.

Compliance Week will provide readers with full details on the proposed changes in the May 11 edition.