UOKiK Website To Announce Merger Control Proceedings

Details of all merger control proceedings, including the names of the acquirer, target and date and status of the application date, will now be published on the website of the Office for the Competition and Consumers Protection (UOKiK).

UOKiK officials are obliged to protect business secrets which they learn during merger control proceedings but this does not extend to information about the commencement of proceedings, or the announcement or contents of its final decision. Until April 2007 information on commencement of proceedings in public transactions was, however, confidential.

In practice, no details of any commencement of merger control proceedings have yet been published on the UOKiK website. UOKiK was only confirming this fact at the request. It could have caused some doubts regarding practical confidentiality of the merger application, in particular in public transactions before the public tender is announced.