The EU Commission plans on reviewing a transaction even though EU and national turnover thresholds are not reached (Illumina / Grail)

In a controversial move, the European Commission (the Commission) announced on 20 April 2021 that it would review the proposed acquisition of cancer detection test start-up Grail by genomics firm Illumina, both of the US. The Commission acted on a request of France, which was backed by three further EU Member States (Belgium, Greece, and The Netherlands) as well as EEA countries Iceland and Norway, under powers conferred to it by Article 22 of the EU Merger Control Regulation (Article 22). Article 22