cation for issuing the public comment.TakeawaysThe DOJ’s public comment on the SEC’s proposed rules for equity markets show its commitment to competition advocacy and ensuring all federal agencies consider competition within their jurisdictions. The DOJ’s public comments seem to suggest a lack of pre-issuance coordination between SEC and DOJ. Under Biden’s “whole of-government” approach to promoting competition and improving efficiency, we would have expected DOJ’s input before the SEC published its proposed rules. It will be interesting to see if the SEC responds to the DOJ, makes substantive changes in its final rule, or strengthens coordination with the DOJ in future rulemaking proceedings.FOOTNOTES Disclosure of Order Execution Information, 88 Fed. Reg. 3786 (Jan. 20, 2023) (“Rule 605 Proposal”). Regulation NMS: Minimum Pricing Increments, Access Fees, and Transparency of Better Priced Orders, 87 Fed. Reg. 80,266 (Dec. 29, 2022) (“Regulation NMS Proposal”). Order Competition Rule, 88 Fed. Reg. 128 (Jan. 3, 2023) (“Order Competition Rule Proposal”). Regulation Best Execution, 88 Fed. Reg. 5440 (Jan. 27, 2023) (“Regulation Best Execution Proposal”).

rders of customers as segmented orders; (2) an originating broker would be prohibited from routing a customer order identified as a segmented order without also identifying the order to the routing destination as a segmented order; and (3) an originating broker who prefers not to disclose its identity in an auction message must certify that it has established, maintained, and enforced written policies and procedures reasonably designed to assure that its identity will not be disclosed, directly or indirectly, to any person who could participate in the qualified auction or otherwise trade with the segmented order.Companies and individuals are encouraged to contact experienced securities regulatory counsel with any questions about how these developments might apply to them or their business.Endnotes[1]SEC, Press Release: SEC Proposes Rule to Enhance Competition for Individual Investor Order Execution (December 14, 2022) [Press Release].[2]See Order Competition Rule, Exchange Act Release No. 34-96495, 88 Fed. Reg. 128 (January 3, 2023) [Rule Proposal].[3]Rule 600(b)(55) of Regulation NMS defines “NMS stock” as any “NMS security” (i.e., any security or class of securities for which transaction reports are collected, processed, and made available pursuant to an effective transaction reporting plan, or an effective NMS plan for reporting transactions in listed options) other than an option. 17 CFR 242.600(b)(54)-(55). Over-the-counter, or OTC, securities are not included in the definition of NMS stock. See Rule Proposal at 131 n. 16.[4]SEC, Order Competition Rule: Submitted Comments (last visited February 3, 2023).[5]See Rule Proposal at 179 (acknowledging “considerable uncertainty in the costs that would arise from Proposed Rule 615” and anticipated costs (1) to the operations of wholesalers and some retail brokers generally, (2) to retail brokers from wholesalers altering the costs associated with handling orders, (3) to open competition trading centers associated with creating qualified auctions, and (4) to broker-d