The European Commission decided on Friday 20 August to open an investigation to determine whether Illumina’s decision to acquire GRAIL, while its in-depth investigation of the proposed transaction is still ongoing, constitutes a violation of the standstill obligation under Article 7 of the Merger Regulation.
The ‘standstill obligation’ avoids potential irreparable negative consequences of market operations pending the outcome of the Commission’s investigation.
The investigation announced on Friday is separate from the Commission’s in-depth investigation of the substance of the case, which will continue in accordance with the deadlines set out in the Merger Regulation.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President in charge of Competition Policy, said: “Under our ex-ante merger control regime companies must wait for our approval before a transaction can go ahead. (...) This is why we have decided to immediately start an investigation to assess whether Illumina’s decision constitutes a breach of this important obligation”.
On 18 August, Illumina, a global health technology company, announced its decision to acquire GRAIL, a developer of next-generation sequencing-based cancer screening tests, while the Commission’s review of the proposed transaction is still ongoing.
On 22 July, the Commission opened an in-depth investigation into the proposed transaction (see EUROPE 12768/19).
In April, the Commission accepted requests from Belgium, France, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands and Norway to assess the proposed acquisition of GRAIL by Illumina under the EU Merger Regulation.
The Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the total turnover on companies that deliberately or negligently violate the standstill obligation.
Link to the case: https://bit.ly/3Btr8P3 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)