The EU General Court confirms that the Commission may assess mergers that do not meet the required thresholds if a Member State refers the transaction under Art. 22 EUMR (Illumina / Grail)

The GCEU upheld the decision of the EC accepting a referral request from France, as joined by other Member States, asking it to assess the proposed acquisition of GRAIL by Illumina (Judgment of July 13, 2022, Case T-227/21, Illumina, Inc; v Commission). Background On September 21, 2020, Illumina, Inc. (Illumina) an American company specialising in genomic sequencing, announced its intention to acquire sole control of GRAIL, LLC (GRAIL) an American biotechnology company which uses genomic sequencing to develop cancer screening tests. The EUMR thresholds were not met by “the Transaction”, nor were any EU or EFTA Member State merger control thresholds. The Transaction was not therefore notified to the EC nor to any of the EU or EFTA Member States. However, the EC announced a new approach