The EU General Court denies the application for annulment of Commission decision on merger prohibition, though it finds that the assessment of the conglomerate effects resulting from the concentration was erroneous (GE / Honeywell International)

General Electric/Honeywell merger prohibition upheld by European Court of First Instance – “Conglomerate effects” analysis represents “manifest errors of assessment”* On December 14, 2005, the European Court of First Instance (“CFI”) denied the application of General Electric Company (“GE”) and Honeywell International (“Honeywell”) for annulment of the merger prohibition issued by the European Commission (“Commission”) of July 3, 2001 [1]. There, the Commission declared that the acquisition of the assets of Honeywell by GE would be a “concentration incompatible with the common market”. A concentration which creates or strengthens a dominant position as a result of which effective competition would be significantly impeded in the common market, or a substantial part thereof, is declared