Brussels, 25/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the Commission launched a public consultation on draft guidelines aiming to clarify its “remedies” policy in the field of mergers. Remedies are changes proposed by the parties to a merger in order to eliminate competition concerns identified by the Commission in its merger control inquiry.
This re-examination has been undertaken for several reasons. First of all, it reflects the conclusions of the Commission's “Merger Remedies Study”, which was carried out by the Commission published in October 2005 (EUROPE 9055). The draft revised notice also incorporates recent jurisprudence from the European Courts, which gave useful guidance on the legal framework for accepting or rejecting remedies, as well as on more specific issues concerning their design. The experience gained in the Commission's practice in recent years in the implementation of remedies is also reflected. Lastly, the new communication takes into account changes concerning remedies introduced in the 2004 Merger Regulation. The public consultation is open for two months from today, and interested parties can make their observations during this time.
See also http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/legislation/merger_remedies.html. (cd)