The Commission takes note of the judgement of the General Court fully upholding a 2020 Commission decision. In its decision, the Commission approved the acquisition of joint control of INWIT by Telecom Italia and Vodafone, subject to conditions.
In its judgment, the General Court confirmed the Commission’s assessment of the suitability of the remedies submitted by the merging parties to address the identified competition concerns.

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Groupe Courir SAS (‘Courir') by JD Sports Fashion Plc Group (‘JD Sports'). The approval is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments offered by the parties.

This year the 2004 EU Merger Regulation turns 20 years old. To mark this significant milestone DG COMP organised a conference, bringing together experts from across the competition field. Building on such momentum the conference was designed to take stock, reflect on what the 2004 reform has meant as well as look forward to what the future may entail. This brief seeks to capture and summarise some of the many highlights and interesting discussions of the day (in words and pictures).

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of EQOS by Eiffage. The approval is conditional upon full compliance with commitments offered by Eiffage and EQOS.

The Commission takes note of the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union upholding the 2019 Commission’s decision that prohibited the creation of a joint venture by Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp under the EU Merger Regulation (‘EUMR’).
With this judgment, the Court of Justice upholds a “gap case” prohibition under the EUMR, meaning a case where the merger is found to lead to a significant impediment to effective competition despite the fact that the merged entity is not found to be dominant in the relevant market. The Court thus confirms the Commission’s framework of review to examining potential anticompetitive effects stemming from mergers between close but non-dominant competitors.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Kinetics Holding GmbH by Exyte GmbH. The Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area.

The second issue of 2024 includes the following articles: Adobe/Figma; Amazon/iRobot; Orange/MasMobil; CMA CGM/Bolloré Logistics.

The European Commission takes note of the withdrawal of the initial referral requests by seven Member States to review under Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (‘EUMR') the acquisition of certain assets of Inflection AI, Inc. (‘Inflection') by Microsoft Corporation (‘Microsoft). The deadline for the Commission to decide upon these requests was 19 September 2024. Following the judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union of 3 September 2024 in the Illumina/GRAIL case, holding that Member States cannot refer a transaction to the Commission under Article 22 of the EUMR when not competent to review the transaction under their national merger control rules, all seven Member States that submitted an initial referral have decided to withdraw their requests. Therefore, the Commission will take no decision in this matter.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union setting aside the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 13 July 2022, Illumina v Commission (T-227/21). Today’s judgement also annuls the European Commission’s decision of 19 April 2021, accepting the request of the French Competition Authority to examine the concentration relating to the acquisition by Illumina Inc. of sole control over Grail LLC; and annuls the Commission decisions accepting the requests of the Greek, Belgian, Norwegian, Icelandic and Dutch competition authorities to join that referral request.
The Commission will carefully study the judgment and its implications and will reflect on possible next steps.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format), as well as the statement by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager.

The European Commission takes note of IAG's announcement that it has decided to terminate its agreement with Globalia according to which IAG intended to acquire sole control over Air Europa. IAG owns several airlines, including Iberia and Vueling, and is the largest airline operator in Spain. Air Europa is the third largest airline in Spain. Up to the abandonment of the transaction, the discussions with the companies and the proposed remedy package were not able to adequately address the competition concerns identified by the Commission. The Commission had opened an in-depth investigation into the proposed transaction on 24 January 2024 and sent a Statement of Objections to IAG on 26 April 2024.

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Viterra Limited by Bunge Global S.A. The approval is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments offered by the parties.

The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks, Inc. by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company. The Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area.

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of joint control of ITA Airways by Deutsche Lufthansa AG and the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (‘MEF'). The approval is conditional upon full compliance with the remedies offered by Lufthansa and the MEF.

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of the European over the counter (‘OTC') business of Viatris Inc. by Cooper Consumer Health S.A.S. The approval is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments offered by the parties.

The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition by KKR & Co. Inc. (‘KKR') of NetCo. The Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area.

The first issue of 2024 includes the following articles: Viasat/Inmarsat; Microsoft/Activision Blizzard; Hitachi Rail/Thales GTS; and Novozymes/Chr. Hansen.

The European Commission has informed International Consolidated Airlines Group, S.A. (‘IAG') of the Commission's preliminary view that IAG's proposed acquisition of sole control of Air Europa Holding, S.L. (‘Air Europa') may restrict competition in the market for passenger air transport services, in particular for routes within, to and from Spain. The Commission is concerned that customers may face increased prices and/or decreased quality of services after the transaction.

2024 marks the 20th anniversary the EU Merger Regulation. To mark this anniversary, DG Competition held last week the conference "EU Merger Regulation 139/2004: 20 Years that Made a Difference". Furthermore, DG Competition also released this video to provide an explanation of what EU merger control policy is all about.

This issue focuses on non-price competition in EU merger control. It includes two artcles: (i) Non-Price Competition: EU Merger Control Framework and Case Practice; and (ii) Assessing Innovation Competition in Pharma Mergers.

To mark the twentieth anniversary of the EU Merger Regulation (Regulation 139/2004), DG COMPETITION is organising a conference that will bring together leading experts to discuss and reflect on the impact of EU merger control over the last decades.
The event will be a full-day conference with keynote speeches, panels and a fireside chat, involving contributors from DG Competition, National Competition Authorities, judges, competition enforcement practitioners, in-house counsels and academics on a wide range of topics related to the main theme.