Antitrust Alert: Japan Fair Trade Commission Proposes Revised Merger Regulation And Guidelines

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has proposed revised merger regulation and guidelines, to further improve transparency and predictability of merger review procedure under the Antimonopoly Act and make Japanese merger regulation more consistent with international standards. The main features of the draft revisions are reform of the pre-notification consultation procedure and revision of the standard for substantive merger reviews.

Reform of the pre-notification consultation procedure

The pre-notification consultation procedure has played an important role in the Japanese merger review, in particular for large scale transactions that could raise competition concerns. Companies valued obtaining informal and non-public views on contemplated transactions by the JFTC.