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ARTICLE · 26 JULY 2023

The New EU FSR Regime: What Are The Implications?

Norton Rose Fulbright
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The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) is one of the hottest topics in EU law right now.

European UnionAntitrust/Competition Law
Alexandra Rogers
Alexandra Rogers

The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) is one of the hottest topics in EU law right now. Since 12 July 2023, the European Commission (EC) has new powers to ensure that third country governments are not subsidizing their industries to the detriment of fair competition on the EU internal market. Companies will also have new notification obligations under the FSR, so how can you prepare?

It is important to be aware of the three new tools that the FSR has introduced:

  1. Extensive powers for the EC to launch ex officio investigations into distortive foreign subsidies received by a company;
  2. A mandatory notification obligation for M&A transactions where the target (or JV, or one of the merging parties) has at least ?500 million in EU turnover and the undertakings concerned have received at least ?50 million in foreign financial contributions (FFCs) in the three years prior to the conclusion of the relevant agreement; and

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