Thomas Hoehn

In this foreword, I reflect on the role of the monitoring trustee as the eyes and ears of a competition authority highlighting the main features in a typical merger remedy. I review both structural remedies such as divestures of businesses and business assets to an independent purchaser to restore or maintain competition, and behavioural remedies which can take various forms ranging from hold-separate obligations to access commitments and long-term supply or purchase agreement to enable third parties to preserve competition. Then I discuss a number of challenges that trustees increasingly face particularly in innovation intensive industries where several major global mergers have been cleared subject to sometimes very complex remedies. I draw on my experience as monitoring trustee (both structural and behavioural remedies) for the European Commission, the FTC as well as other national competition authorities, and as a former member of the UK Competition & Markets Authority.

Over the last three years, merger control has remained an active area of antitrust enforcement in Europe as well as other parts of the world. The global merger boom of the last few years has continued even if it lost some momentum from mid-2018 onwards. According to a report by EY, global M&A in 2020 was tracking below 2019’s value, but still was expected to rank fifth for value of deals in the post-global financial crisis period.

Merger control remains an active area of antitrust enforcement in Europe as well as other parts of the world. The global merger boom of the last few years continues to raise significant challenges for enforcers, not least through the recent mega-mergers in the pharmaceuticals, agrochemical and IT industries.

The operation The Oberösterreichische Rundschau Gruppe (OÖ Group) publishes several weekly newspapers in Upper Austria. Moser Holding AG (Moser) is not yet active in the region but does publish the weekly freesheet "Bezirksblätter" in several regions, some of them bordering Upper Austria. (...)

The operation Telekom Austria AG is the incumbent telecommunications provider in Austria. eTel Austria (eTel) is a full range telecommunication services provider with a focus on business customers and fixed line services. The proposed acquisition of eTel by Telekom Austria was notified to (...)

The operation Espace Media Group SA (EMG) through Berner Zeitung AG and Tamedia AG were planning to acquire through a joint undertaking stakes in the free daily newspaper ‘20 Minuten’. EMG is active in newspaper publishing, the electronic media sector, local radios and internet (...)