The EU Commission publishes guidance and expands its jurisdiction by capturing transactions below the jurisdictional thresholds of national and EU merger control regimes

Concurrences Bulletin, Matthew G. Rose, Douglas Lahnborg, Saira Henry and Marie-Laure Combet, 26 March 2021, e-Competitions

Click here to read the full article online

The European Commission (“Commission”) is expanding its jurisdiction over transactions by encouraging national competition authorities (“NCAs”) of the EU Member States to ‘refer’ certain transactions to it that fall below the thresholds for mandatory notification at the EU and the national level. On 26 March 2021, the Commission published guidance (“Guidance”) setting out referrals that are ‘encouraged’ and how and when it will accept such referrals. This development has not required legislative changes (which would have taken some time and also required unanimity among EU Member States) but rather the Commission is resuscitating an existing provision, the so-called “Dutch clause”, namely Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (“EUMR”).

Authors

Testimonials

Brenda Gisela Hernández Ramírez
Mexican Competition Authority (Mexico City)

Mexico

It is very inspiring to learn first-hand about the great work being done world-wide by academics, students, companies and authorities to address the antitrust challenges we are currently facing in the markets.
Andreas Mundt
German Competition Authority (Bonn)

France 30 contributions 53436 visits

It was a great pleasure to attend the Antitrust Writing Awards 2022. It is good to see that the competition community has continued to push forward its good work.
Christian Bovet
University of Geneva

Switzerland 7 contributions 21578 visits

Participating in the steering committee is an excellent opportunity to learn each time more about competition law, not only about its substance and trends, but also about the great diversity of this ever evolving matter. The Awards ensure the continuing renewal of authors and sources.
Inge Graef
University of Tilburg

Netherlands 4 contributions 5493 visits

The Antitrust Writing Awards illustrate the variety of topics and ideas in the competition community. They offer an excellent insight into current academic thinking and policy developments.
Alexandre Cordeiro Macedo
Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) (Brasilia)

Brazil 4 contributions 2784 visits

The Antitrust Writing Awards must be congratulated for its initiative of promoting the exchange of knowledge and research in competition policy. It was an unparalleled opportunity to be a member of the Board and present the Best Soft Law category. I feel honored and I commend Concurrences for organizing such an important endeavor.