EU Merger Control Procedure – A Brief Overview

Thomas Wiese, Case Handler, Directorate-General of Competition of the European Commission, Unit C-5 Mergers

This paper provides an introductory overview of the EU merger control procedure, explaining the main terms and principles and showing the practical implications on notifiable transactions. 1. Legal Framework The EU merger control rules consist of a set of EU law provisions. The most relevant ones are the EU Merger Regulation and the Implementing Regulation. These Regulations are complemented by notices and other explanatory documents that will be mentioned in this paper where necessary. An important and very instructive document from a practitioner’s point of view is the Notice on Best Practices on the conduct of EU merger control proceedings (‘Best Practice Notice’), which explains the main steps of the EU merger control procedure.