At a time when international convergence is a key issue in antitrust law, the European Commission (EC) has been consulting on proposals which, if adopted, could result in far-reaching reform of the EU merger control process, governed by the EC Merger Regulation (ECMR).
Recently, the EC has been criticised for its treatment of mergers, in particular its decision to block the GE/Honeywell merger after it had already been cleared in the US and the blocking of Schneider/ Legrand and Sidel/Tetra Laval, all of which are currently under appeal. Although these decisions should not be taken out of context (of 335 cases notified in 2001 only five were prohibited), some commentators have compared the EC unfavourably with the US antitrust authorities, particularly after it blocked GE/Honeywell. It is therefore interesting that features drawn from the US system of merger control are among the topics up for discussion.
