Antitrust

In a landmark judgment, the European Court of Justice has ruled that the European Commission’s recalibrated approach to using Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation to review otherwise non-reportable M&A transactions is unlawful.

The ruling is a clear blow to the EC’s ability to review below-threshold deals going forward (especially the so-called “killer acquisitions” of targets with little or no EU turnover on which the EC had set its sights). While the EC has already sought to highlight the alternative powers at its disposal, with implications for the practical risk assessment and timing of potential M&A deals, those alternative powers come with their own challenges.

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