Just three days after Hertz Global Holdings pushed back the deadline of its latest offer to acquire Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, the proposed Hertz-Dollar Thrifty merger took a major step forward late last week.

Hertz revealed that it gave federal antitrust authorities the premerger notification required by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, regarding its offer for DTAG.

So what does Hertz filing the notification and report form mean?

According to the Federal Trade Commission, Hart-Scott-Rodino basically created the path by which parties must inform  the FTC and Department of Justice about large mergers and acquisitions ahead of time.

“The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act established the federal premerger notification program, which provides the FTC and the Department of Justice with information about large mergers and acquisitions before they occur,” the FTC explains on the Bureau of Competition section of its website.

“The parties to certain proposed transactions must submit premerger notification to the FTC and DOJ,” it added. “Premerger notification involves completing an HSR Form, also called a ‘Notification and Report Form for Certain Mergers and Acquisitions,’ with information about each company’s business.”

The FTC blurb goes on to explain that deals cannot be closed until the one of the following happens: the specified waiting period ends or the government allows the waiting period to end early.