The EU Commission assesses in a published policy paper whether its jurisdictional merger control thresholds leave an enforcement gap and whether the administrative burden on merging firms and other market participants is proportionate

In a recently published policy paper, the European Commission (EC) assessed whether its jurisdictional merger control thresholds leave an enforcement gap, and whether the administrative burden on merging firms and other market participants is proportionate. The EC concludes that the bright-line, turnover-based thresholds of the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) generally suffice to capture transactions that merit EU review. In particular, the EC for the first time officially confirmed its position that these thresholds need not be expanded to capture acquisitions of non-controlling minority shareholdings – though that does not mean minority shareholders are home free under EU competition law. The EC did express concern that some ‘killer acquisitions’, especially in the digital and pharma