SynthesisOPENING REMARKS: NAVIGATING MERGER REGIMES ACROSS THE GLOBE
Pierre Kirch (Partner Paul Hastings, Paris/Brussels) and Bruno Lasserre (Chairman, French Competition Authority)
After expressing his thanks to Bruno Lasserre and Nicolas Charbit (Editor in chief of Concurrences Journal and President of the Institute of Competition law), Pierre Kirch briefly introduced the four topics that the panels would discuss. Mr. Kirch described various issues of concern to General Counsel of multinational companies, and, in particular, the fact that more than 120 countries in the world have merger control regimes, with no global harmonization whatsoever on a number of issues, including inter alia, minority shareholdings, the concept of “control,” the effective timetable of review procedures, etc. Given the “explosion” of merger control regimes, companies face issues of where to notify and when.