Department of Justice's Initiative to Seek Termination of Legacy Antitrust Judgments

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This notice describes the Department of Justice's new initiative for seeking unilaterally to terminate "legacy" antitrust judgments. Legacy antitrust judgments are those judgments that do not include an express termination date and that a court has not terminated by an order. The vast majority of these judgments were entered before 1979, when the Division adopted the general practice of using sunset provisions to terminate a judgment automatically, usually 10 years after entry of the judgment. Nearly 1300 legacy judgments remain open on the books of the Antitrust Division, and nearly all of them likely remain open on the dockets of courts around the country. Many of these legacy judgments do not serve their original purpose of protecting competition. To eliminate the burden on defendants, courts, and the Division of complying with, overseeing, and enforcing outdated judgments, the Division has announced an initiative whereby it unilaterally will seek to terminate legacy judgments, as appropriate. The initiative provides for public notice and comment before the Division seeks to terminate a judgment. The Division has established a website to keep the public apprised of this initiati