Skip to main content
Date
Rule
801.1(a)(2)
Staff
Wayne Kaplan
Response/Comments
The issue of which entities within a religious organization engaged in businessactivities must file is still being considered. Advice is given in each situation basedupon the individual facts of that situation. Above note added by WEK on 3/9/87

Question

(redacted)

June 18, 1985

Mr. Wayne Kaplan
Premerger Notification Office
Room 301
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, D.C. 20580

Dear Mr. Kaplan:

This letter is in confirmation of the advice I received from you in our telephone conversation on May 14, 1985. In that conversation, I described the following scenario:

Facts

A, a church, is the sole corporate member of B and C, two not-for-profit entities. X, a church body, is composed of 170 individual members, two of each of the 170 representing 85 religious congregations. X controls Y, a not-for-profit entity. B, C and Y desire to consolidate functionally their operations and the operations of the organizations which each owns or controls by the creation of a new not-for-profit corporation to be the sole member of B, C and Y.

Issue

Are A and X required to make premerger notification filings?

You advised me as follows:

Conclusion

A and X, as church bodies, are not cognizable persons under the Hart-Scott-Rodino rules, and, thus, not required to make premerger notification filings under the rules. filings should be made by B, C and Y.

I will act upon your advice unless I hear from you otherwise by June 28, 1985.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

(redacted)

(redacted)

About Informal Interpretations

Informal interpretations provide guidance from previous staff interpretations on the applicability of the HSR rules to specific fact situations. You should not rely on them as a substitute for reading the Act and the Rules themselves. These materials do not, and are not intended to, constitute legal advice.

Learn more about Informal Interpretations.