1. Relevant Authorities and Legislation
1.1 Who is/are
the relevant merger authority(ies)?
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission
("CCPC") is responsible for the
promotion and enforcement of competition law in Ireland. The
CCPC was established on 31 October 2014 when the functions of the
Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency were
amalgamated into a single agency.
The CCPC has sole responsibility for investigating notifiable
mergers under Part 3 of the Competition Act 2002 (as amended)
("Competition Act"). In addition
to being subject to the CCPC process, media mergers (as defined in
the Competition Act) are subject to a separate process,
involving the Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and
the Gaeltacht ("Minister for
Media"). That process is described in more
detail in response to question 2.7 below.
