Skip to main content

Under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act, parties to certain large mergers and acquisitions must file premerger notification and wait for government review. The parties may not close their deal until the waiting period outlined in the HSR Act has passed, or the government has granted early termination of the waiting period. The FTC provides daily updates of deals that receive early termination.

- Adapted from Premerger Notification and the Merger Review Process.

More information about FTC APIs is on the FTC for Developers page.


Creating Filters

The simplest, most common filter is a key-value filter:

?filter[field_name]=value&filter[field_other]=value

Request

Path Parameters

(none)

This matches all resources with "field_name" equal to "value" and "field_other" equal to "value".

For further information about filtering, please refer to the Drupal.org documentation page.


List all HSR Early Termination Notices

GET /v0/hsr-early-termination-notices

Request

Path Parameters

(none)

Query Parameters

Parameter Type Value
api_key (string) Required (unless provided in X-Api-Key header field). A valid api.data.gov API key. You can request an API key at API Key Signup Form.
title (string) Optional. Filter records by keyword(s) that appear in the record title.

Optional
Example: ?filter[title][value]=Foo

To match an explicit phrase, enclose it in double-quotes.
Example: ?keywords="Health%20Plan"

transaction_number (integer) Optional. Filter records by transaction number.
Example: ?filter[transaction-number][value]=20110728
date (integer) For example, show all records for January 15, 2021: ?filter[date][condition][value]=2021-01-15&filter[date][condition][path]=date&filter[date][condition][operator]==
sort_by (string) Optional. Sort records by various criteria.
created = Sort by when record was created
changed = Sort by when record was last updated
Example: ?sort[title][path]=created
sort_order (string) Optional. Sort direction to use with the sort_by parameter.
DESC = Sort in descending order (default)
ASC = Sort in ascending order.
Example: ?sort[title][path]=created&sort[title][direction]=DESC
items_per_page (integer) Optional. Maximum number of records to include in JSON response. All non-empty responses include pagination metadata, which can be used to iterate over a large number of records, by sending a GET request for each page of records.
Example: ?page[limit]=10
offset (integer) Optional. Offset by a number of records, allowing a particular section of paginated results to be requested (use with the items_per_page parameter).
Example: ?page[offset]=6&page[limit]=10

Response Parameters

Response parameters are described at the end of this page.

Response Format

All responses are in JSON format. The JSON object structure loosely adheres to the jsonapi.org spec. Possible responses:

HTTP Status CODE TYPE Description
200 OK List of HSR Early Termination Notice records (in JSON format).
400 Error Request URL does not use HTTPS (which is required for all API requests).
403 Error API key is missing or invalid. See api.data.gov General Web Service Errors for further details.
404 Error The API endpoint requested could not be found.
429 Error The rate limit has been exceeded for the API key provided.

Example

List all Early Termination Notices that include "Blockbuster" in the record title:

https://api.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices?api_key=DEMO_KEY&filter[title][operator]=CONTAINS&filter[title][value]=Blockbuster

{
  "jsonapi": {
    "version": "1.0",
    "meta": {
      "links": {
        "self": {
          "href": "http://jsonapi.org/format/1.0/"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "early_termination_notice",
      "id": "0254a428-d492-4d98-8bc6-e704bad804b7",
      "links": {
        "self": {
          "href": "https://www.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices/0254a428-d492-4d98-8bc6-e704bad804b7?resourceVersion=id%3A2358"
        }
      },
      "attributes": {
        "title": "20110718: Carl C. Icahn; Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession",
        "created": "2013-09-24T20:05:39+00:00",
        "updated": "2013-09-24T22:22:27+00:00",
        "acquired-party": "Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession",
        "acquiring-party": "Carl C. Icahn",
        "date": "2011-04-11",
        "acquired-entities": [
          "Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession"
        ],
        "transaction-number": "20110718"
      },
      "relationships": {
        "node_type": {
          "data": null,
          "links": {
            "self": {
              "href": "https://www.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices/0254a428-d492-4d98-8bc6-e704bad804b7/relationships/node_type?resourceVersion=id%3A2358"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "early_termination_notice",
      "id": "633b56f1-a499-4ac5-903d-7e46427563f7",
      "links": {
        "self": {
          "href": "https://www.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices/633b56f1-a499-4ac5-903d-7e46427563f7?resourceVersion=id%3A2359"
        }
      },
      "attributes": {
        "title": "20110728: Charles W. Ergen; Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession",
        "created": "2013-09-24T20:05:39+00:00",
        "updated": "2013-09-24T22:22:27+00:00",
        "acquired-party": "Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession",
        "acquiring-party": "Charles W. Ergen",
        "date": "2011-04-08",
        "acquired-entities": [
          "Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession"
        ],
        "transaction-number": "20110728"
      },
      "relationships": {
        "node_type": {
          "data": null,
          "links": {
            "self": {
              "href": "https://www.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices/633b56f1-a499-4ac5-903d-7e46427563f7/relationships/node_type?resourceVersion=id%3A2359"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "count": "2"
  },
  "links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://www.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices?filter%5Btitle%5D%5Boperator%5D=CONTAINS&filter%5Btitle%5D%5Bvalue%5D=Blockbuster"
    }
  }
}

Get a single HSR Early Termination Notice

GET /v0/hsr-early-termination-notices/filter[id][value]

Request

Path Parameters

Parameter Type Value
{id} (integer) Required. A valid ID for an HSR Early Termination Notice record.

Query Parameters

Parameter Type Value
api_key (string) Required (unless provided in X-Api-Key header field). A valid api.data.gov API key. You can request an API key at API Key Signup Form.

Response Parameters

Response parameters are described at the end of this page.

Response Format

All responses are in JSON format. The JSON object structure loosely adheres to the jsonapi.org spec. Possible responses:

HTTP Status CODE TYPE Description
200 OK List of HSR Early Termination Notice records (in JSON format).
400 Error Request URL does not use HTTPS (which is required for all API requests).
403 Error API key is missing or invalid. See api.data.gov General Web Service Errors for further details.
404 Error The API endpoint requested could not be found.
429 Error The rate limit has been exceeded for the API key provided.

Example

List Early Termination Notices for ID = 5d12fb37-f378-4c3e-ae4b-98092c90df71:

https://api.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices?filter[id][value]= 5d12fb37-f378-4c3e-ae4b-98092c90df71&api_key=DEMO_KEY

{
  "jsonapi": {
    "version": "1.0",
    "meta": {
      "links": {
        "self": {
          "href": "http://jsonapi.org/format/1.0/"
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "early_termination_notice",
      "id": "0254a428-d492-4d98-8bc6-e704bad804b7",
      "links": {
        "self": {
          "href": "https://www.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices/0254a428-d492-4d98-8bc6-e704bad804b7?resourceVersion=id%3A2358"
        }
      },
      "attributes": {
        "title": "20110718: Carl C. Icahn; Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession",
        "created": "2013-09-24T20:05:39+00:00",
        "updated": "2013-09-24T22:22:27+00:00",
        "acquired-party": "Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession",
        "acquiring-party": "Carl C. Icahn",
        "date": "2011-04-11",
        "acquired-entities": [
          "Blockbuster Inc. - Debtor-in-Possession"
        ],
        "transaction-number": "20110718"
      },
      "relationships": {
        "node_type": {
          "data": null,
          "links": {
            "self": {
              "href": "https://www.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices/0254a428-d492-4d98-8bc6-e704bad804b7/relationships/node_type?resourceVersion=id%3A2358"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "count": "1"
  },
  "links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://www.ftc.gov/v0/hsr-early-termination-notices?filter%5Bid%5D%5Bvalue%5D=0254a428-d492-4d98-8bc6-e704bad804b7"
    }
  }
}

 


Response Parameters

Parameter Type Value
data (array) An array of HSR Early Termination Notice record objects.
type (string) The record type (for this endpoint, the type is "early_termination_notice").
id (string) The record ID.
attributes (object) An object containing the main data for this record.
title (string) The record title.
transaction-number (string) The transaction number that corresponds to this record.
acquired-entities (string) The entities that were acquired.
acquired-party (string) The party that was acquired.
acquiring-party (string) The acquiring party.
date (string) The date the transaction was made. Timestamp format is ISO 8601.
Example: 1997-07-16T19:20:30+01:00
created (string) The date/time the record was created. Timestamp format is ISO 8601.
updated (string) The date/time the record was last updated. Timestamp format is ISO 8601.
tags (array) An array of tags that have been applied to this record.
relationships (array) An array of other records related to this record.
meta (array) An array of metadata for this record.
links (object) An object containing links pertaining to this record.
self (url) The URL for this record.
meta (object) An object containing metadata for the request itself, including pagination data.
page (string) The page number for the list of records in this response.
pages-total (string) The total number of result pages for the request.
records-this-page (string) The number of records included in this response.
records-total (string) The total number of records found for the request.
links (object) An object containing links pertaining to the request itself.
self (url) The URL of the request.

Changelog

documentation was updated to reflect changes to the JSON structure in Drupal 9 (4/13/23)