(Bloomberg) -- The US Federal Trade Commission must release warning letters that the agency sent to merging companies if they had reported their deal was subject to review, a federal judge ruled.

DC federal court Judge Rudolph Contreras issued the decision late Tuesday and also ordered the FTC to provide the dates on which it had sent any other warning letters in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Bloomberg News in October 2022.

The FTC declined to comment on the ruling.

The Biden administration has taken a more aggressive approach to antitrust, enforcement, challenging a record number of deals.

While antitrust investigations aren’t public, the ruling may shed more light on mergers where enforcers raised competition concerns, but ultimately opted against a lawsuit.

In August 2021, the FTC said it would begin sending letters to some merging businesses warning that an investigation remains open despite the expiration of the statutory deadline for the antitrust review. 

Under US merger law, deals valued at more than $111.4 million must notify the relevant federal agencies. The FTC and Justice Department have 30 days to review a transaction and decide whether to pursue an in-depth probe.

 Because a “tidal wave of merger filings” had strained agency resources, the FTC was unable to fully investigate deals within that timeline, said Holly Vedova, then head of the FTC’s antitrust arm, in a blog post on the agency’s website in August 2021. She said the FTC would send “close at risk letters” to companies after the deadline in cases where the agency needed more time.

The FTC denied a public records request seeking disclosure of the letters, arguing they were exempt from release. Bloomberg sued seeking their release.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.