The Commission Offers Insight Into The Examining Of Below-threshold Transactions

Recent years have seen an increasing focus, from the Commission and national competition authorities alike, on also catching and examining mergers that are not automatically notifiable because they do not meet the turnover thresholds. One of the tools available to the authorities for capturing such mergers is an increased use of Member States' powers for referring mergers that would not otherwise be notifiable, neither to the Commission nor nationally, and the Commission has recently published a set of Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (Q&A) to help clarify the significant change of practice. Moreover, and somewhat surprisingly, the Advocate General has opined, in the Towercast case, that even below-threshold mergers may in certain cases be assessed under the abuse-of-dominance rules, thus challenging a longstanding practice to the contrary (see link to previous newsletter at the end of this article).