Merger Control For Start-Ups – Much Ado About Nothing?

In its 2016 Annual Economic Report, the German Federal Government announced that as part of the upcoming 9th amendment to the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (ARC), “merger control will be expanded to cover cases where, despite low turnover of the company acquired, the transaction value involved in a takeover (e.g. the purchase price) is particularly high.” As shown by the further explanations, with these plans the Federal Government is aiming in particular at big companies acquiring stakes in innovative start-ups. These transactions currently often “fly below the radar” of the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) since the target company’s turnover is in most cases not high enough to meet the thresholds of German merger control. Under currently applicable law, transactions have to be filed with the FCO only if – in addition to an aggregate worldwide turnover of all participating undertakings of more than €500 million – one of the undertakings generates a