Mergers & COVID-19: The impact on EU and national merger control

Introduction While some businesses may choose to delay transactions in light of Covid-19, many transactions will clearly continue and some of these will need to be completed with some urgency, in particular in cases of financial distress. Merger control regimes are still in operation, although there have been some changes, in particular to encourage parties to delay notifications [1], and in some cases, merger control authorities have temporarily closed [2] (see further our recent updates covering the impact of Covid-19 on competition law and merger control in the UK and EU, Asia and Australia). This note considers how merger control processes can best be navigated in times of crisis, for example, where the urgent completion of a transaction may be required, or the target is