Judicial review of merger decisions: An overview of EU and national case law

I came to Brussels to practise competition law a week after the EU Merger Regulation (the “EUMR”) [1] entered into force in 1990 and can well remember the antitrust community’s sense of expectation, trepidation, and excitement. Expectation because of the long period of gestation that followed the Court of Justice’s judgment in Continental Can [2] and the uncertainty around the European Commission’s (the “Commission’s”) ability to implement an EU-wide system of merger control. Trepidation because of the significant practical challenges, open questions of law, and untested principles that were raised by the EUMR. Excitement because of the realization that the practice of EU competition law would almost certainly be permanently and materially changed. Among the many open questions was the