Mergers

Legislation

The main legislative texts for merger decisions are the EC Merger Regulation and the Implementing Regulation. The Merger Regulation contains the main rules for the assessment of concentrations, whereas the Implementing Regulation concerns procedural issues (notification, deadlines, right to be heard,...). The official forms for standard merger notifications (Form CO), simplified merger notifications (Short Form CO) and referral requests (Form RS) are attached to the Implementing Regulation.

In the field of mergers, notices and guidelines (see list below) play an important role for the interpretation of the Merger Regulation.

The Commission has also published "Best Practice Guidelines" which concern the relationship between case team and parties/third parties during the procedure (pre-notification contacts, meetings, provision of documents). To provide better guidance to the parties when it comes to offering commitments, the Commission has also published model texts for divestiture commitments and for trustee mandates and an explanatory guideline.

24.8.2009 - EU Competition law – rules applicable to merger control .
This is a downloadable version of the currently applicable legislation and guidance documents. This publication is available in electronic format only. Updates to the compilation will be published on this page.