On March 28, 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division announced that it has updated procedures for parties seeking to modify or terminate perpetual decrees—settlements and litigated judgments—entered prior to 1980. Perpetual decrees entered into before 1980 cannot be terminated or modified except by court order. Going forward, the department will advise courts that pre-1980 "legacy" decrees, except in limited circumstances, are presumptively no longer in the public interest. According to the DOJ's press release:

"The updated procedure differs from the present procedure in two important ways. First, the party seeking termination or modification will no longer be subject to the extensive discovery that was required by the 1999 protocol. This should result in a substantial reduction in the cost of seeking decree termination. Second, when responding to a request to terminate or modify qualifying legacy decrees, the department will no longer conduct an in-depth investigation into the relevant markets due to the significant changes that have taken place."

The updated procedure can be found in the Division Manual on the Antitrust Division's website.

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