Merger Control: Guidance Paper On New Transaction Value Thresholds In Austria And Germany

Some first observations

In the second half of 2017 both Austria and Germany introduced transaction value based thresholds as alternatives to purely turnover based thresholds that trigger the obligation to obtain merger control approval. The Austrian test pursuant to section 9 (4) Austrian Cartel Act ("ACA") requires, amongst others, the consideration for a transaction to exceed EUR 200 million, and that the target must have significant domestic activities.

Both requirements led to uncertainty and raised several questions. To answer these, the Austrian and German competition authorities have taken the unprecedented step of publishing a joint guidance paper on the new value based threshold (the German version can be found here; "Guidance Paper") The paper follows a consultation process on a draft, which the two authorities published beginning in May 2018 (see the English version of the draft here; "Consultation Paper").