Implementation of the ICN’s Recommended Merger Practices: A Work-in-(Early)-Progress

Originally published July, 2005

Over the course of four years, beginning at the International Competition Network’s (ICN) first conference in Naples in 2002, ICN members have embraced a growing set of best practices for the design and operation of merger review regimes.¹ Implementation of these Recommended Practices has now been recognized as the greatest challenge for the ICN’s merger work program.² To assess and encourage progress, the Merger Streamlining Group (MSG)³ commissioned two surveys of competition agencies and private law firms in all ICN member jurisdictions. The first, carried out in 2003, found very mixed levels of compliance with the ICN’s initial three Recommended Practices for Merger Notification Procedures.⁴ In 2004, a second survey was undertaken to measure implementation of the ICN’s next four Recommended Practices relating to Review Periods, Requirements for Initial Notification, Transparency, and Review of Merger Control Provisions.⁵ This article summarizes and