BH Biglari Holdings Inc

   By Stephen Nakrosis 
 

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday said Biglari Holdings Inc. will pay a $1.4 million civil penalty to settle charges related to two acquisitions of shares of restaurant company Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc.

According to the FTC's complaint, the March 2020 acquisitions made by the company, together with Biglari's prior holdings of Cracker Barrel, exceeded a filing threshold in the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, which established the federal premerger notification program. The FTC said the company was obligated to file an HSR form and wait before completing the acquisition, but didn't do so.

"Biglari claimed that it was unaware of the requirement to aggregate its current holdings when making an acquisition to determine the size of the transaction, which even if true, is grossly negligent," said Holly Vedova, Director of the Bureau of Competition.

"The current complaint states that following its March 2020 share acquisitions, Biglari made a corrective filing in June 2020 only after the FTC's Premerger Notification Office contacted the company and asked why no filing had been made," the commission said.

The FTC said the vote to accept the settlement and refer the matter to the Department of Justice for filing was 5-0.

Biglari Holdings didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Write to Stephen Nakrosis at stephen.nakrosis@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 22, 2021 12:43 ET (17:43 GMT)

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