EU Merger Regulation - Substantive Issues

The 5th edition of The EU Merger Regulation: Substantive Issues offers a fully updated version of this work, incorporating the evolution of law and practice of EU merger control since 2012. It is an essential read for any lawyer or regulator involved in the approval process, providing the most comprehensive and navigable guide available to the substantive analysis at the heart of EU merger control. The text includes a wide-ranging review of the Commission’s decisional practice, guidance and other publications, decisions of the European Courts, economic thinking and international comparisons to provide authoritative guidance on: The legal context in which the Commission’s analysis is carried out The way in which fundamental concepts such as market definition, market operation and the Commission’s forward-looking analysis are applied The theories of harm likely to be raised against a merger and relevant counter-arguments and defences The economic theories underlying the Commission’s analysis The categories of evidence canvassed before the Commission The types of remedies accepted to deal with specific issues New features for the 5th edition: Expanded coverage of quantitative economic analysis, reflecting the increased use of such techniques by the Commission Discussion of evolving theories of harm, such as the treatment of loss of innovation competition where no pipeline products can be identified Reflection of the Commission’s newly refined analysis of the economic impact of non-controlling shareholdings Consideration of recent cases applying input and customer foreclosure theories to technology platforms Key cases covered include: GE/Alstom, offering new guidance on the design and analysis of bidding studies Hutchison 3G Austria/Orange Austria and Telefonica Deutschland/E-Plus suggesting the Commission may be increasingly willing to consider upward pricing pressure tests Cases of the European Courts such as Cisco Systems and Messagenet v Commission, Deutsche Börse v Commission and Niki Luftfahrt GmbH Commission on the burden and standard of proof Three key “failing firm” decisions: Olympic/Aegean I, Nynas/Shell/Harburg Refinery and Aegean/Olympic II. INEOS/Solvay/JV and Hutchison 3G UK/Telefonica UK analysing the price effects of completed mergers