Brussels, 27/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 27 March 2013, the European Commission launched a public consultation exercise on a proposal to simplify certain procedures for notifying mergers under the EU Merger Regulation. The proposal aims to make EU merger control even more business-friendly by cutting red tape and streamlining procedures. The proposed changes could allow up to 70% of all notified mergers to qualify for review under the Commission's simplified procedure, i.e. about 10% more than today. This would encourage economic growth and European competitiveness.
On the legal front, the proposal would make technical changes to the current merger control system laid down by the EU mergers regulation but would not alter the regulation itself. The market share threshold for treatment under the simplified procedure for mergers between firms competing in the same market should be raised from 15% to 20%. For mergers between firms active in upstream and downstream markets - such as between a producer of car parts and a car manufacturer - the threshold should rise from 25% to 30%. The Commission also wants to make it possible to treat a case as simplified where the combined market share of two firms active in the same market is above the 20% threshold but the increase in market share resulting from the merger is very small. The Commission also wants to update and streamline the merger notification forms. In particular, in cases that do not fall under the simplified procedure, merging firms would only have to submit detailed information for those markets where their market share actually exceeds the threshold for applying the simplified procedure.
Contributions to the consultation must reach the Commission by 19 June 2013. For further information, see: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consultations/2013_merger_regulation/index_en.html . (FG/transl.fl)