European Merger Control: Ensuring Fair Competition in a Changing Business Landscape

Extract

[...] - The obligation resulting from the combination of all these conditions is the obligation for participating businesses in a concentration of notifying the Commission = This is therefore a prior notification to the realization of the concentration operation. - In the absence of notification, the Commission imposes heavy fines = 10% of the annual turnover of the company in question. - The fact that the Commission's control is a priori protective of the market, provided that the control is rapid. - Since the Commission must act quickly by a control ex ante, i.e. a control of structures and not of competition behaviors ? [...]

[...] For this, it uses the substantial barrier to effective competition on the market. ? takes into account several parameters such as market position of the concerned companies, economic and financial power, and actual or legal right to enter the market The decisions of prohibition are few in number = dozens over 3000. ?objective for the Commission is not in reality to prohibit concentrations, but to regulate them. To this end, it will declare certain concentrations compatible with the market that in the event that the parties will take commitments with the Commission to eliminate the anti-competitive effects of the operation: - structural modifications the + often, because + easy to control - behavioural modifications the - often, because - easy to control However, questionable procedure B. [...]

[...] The control exercised is deepened and regularly annuls the decision, particularly in the context of prohibition ? example of the case Schneider Electric where the Commission's extra-contractual liability is engaged for procedural fault in the examination of the concentration procedure. The problem of the effectiveness of Community control of concentrations lies in the delays since for the classic procedure it takes 1 year and a half / 2 years for companies and only after that can they introduce an annulment appeal to establish a fault of the Commission = OR few companies can afford to wait For to compensate ? [...]

[...] Does the control of concentrations at the European level remain an effective tool to ensure fair competition while adapting to the current needs of businesses? - Introduction and detailed plan What utility can still have the European control of corporate concentrations Originally, the Community law did not have any specific controland concentrations. The editorsThe editors of the Treaty of Rome were satisfied with repressing the abuse of dominant position declared incompatible with the common market. Since the Regulation of 1989 and then of 2004, the States have agreed on the threshold allowing the EU to be competent in the framework of the control of concentrations. [...]

[...] Does European concentration control remain an effective tool to ensure healthy competition while adapting to the current needs of businesses? I. A legal framework protecting the prerogatives of member states A. A Community competence guaranteeing the complexity of the concentration regime Only very large operations fall within the scope of Community control since it is necessary for the operation to meet two thresholds: - the total CA realized on the global plan for all companies must represent an amount greater than 5 billion ? [...]