A New Playbook For EU Merger Control: What The Commission’s Draft Merger Guidelines Really Signal

The European Commission has recently published its draft new Merger Guidelines for consultation. While the Commission will still assess whether a merger may lead to a significant impediment of competition (SIEC), the Commission intends to attribute more importance to positive effects that mergers can have on resilience, security and sustainability. At the same time, the Commission introduces some novel theories of harm that were not present in its previous guidelines.

This article contains some initial take-aways for dealmakers to navigate through the proposed new regulatory landscape. 

After much speculation, the European Commission’s draft new Merger Guidelines are finally there for everyone to read and comment on. The Commission opened a public consultation on 30 April 2026. Any interested stakeholder can contribute to this consultation by replying to the questionnaire available on the Commission’s website by 26 June 2026.