The Court of First Instance’s (CFI’s) annulment, two years down the line, of the European Commission’s (EC’s) clearance of the Sony/BMG merger highlights the risks associated with contentious EC merger clearances and the unsatisfactory nature of the current EC appeals process.
A less obvious consequence is that when seeking a merger, clearance parties and their lawyers must be aware of the risk that if their advocacy is too effective an initial clearance may be overturned and come back to bite them.
