In November 2022, the EU adopted a new Foreign Subsidies
Regulation (FSR). The FSR applies to transactions with an EU nexus
signing on or after 12 July 2023, with the notification obligations
commencing from 12 October 2023.
The FSR is intended to level the playing field between EU
operators and their competitors from non-EU Member States which are
not subject to the same kind of strict subsidies disciplines as EU
Member States are under the EU State Aid rules.
It seeks to do this by creating new subsidy control tools for
the European Commission to address foreign subsidies, including a
notification-based tool in relation to potentially subsidised
mergers and acquisitions, "concentrations".
Concentrations need to be notified to the European Commission
where: (i) the undertaking to be acquired, one of the merging
undertakings, or the joint venture, is established in the EU and
has aggregate EU turnover of €500 million or more; and (ii)
the aggregate amount of the
