The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, D'Ieteren's acquisition of PHE. The approval is conditional on full compliance with commitments offered by D'Ieteren.

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of VOO and Brutélé by Orange under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission is concerned that the proposed transaction may reduce competition in the retail markets for the supply of fixed internet services, audio-visual services, multiple-play bundles (including fixed-mobile convergent (‘FMC') services) in parts of Belgium.

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, Bouygues' acquisition of Equans. The approval is conditional on full compliance with commitments offered by Bouygues.

The European Commission has sent a Statement of Objections alleging that Illumina and GRAIL breached the EU Merger Regulation by implementing the acquisition while the Commission's in-depth investigation into the proposed transaction is still ongoing.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court upholding the Commission’s decisions of 19 April 2021, by which pursuant to Article 22(3) of the EU Merger Regulation (‘EUMR’), the Commission accepted the requests by France, Belgium, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Norway to examine the proposed acquisition of GRAIL by Illumina.
In its judgment, the General Court upheld the Commission’s assessment. In particular, it confirmed that Article 22 of the EUMR empowers Member States to request a referral of concentrations to the Commission, even in cases where the concentration is not notifiable under national merger control rules of the Member States. The judgment thus endorses the Commission’s recalibrated approach to referrals under Article 22 of the EUMR. The Commission will continue to apply its March 2021 Guidance.
As regards the Phase II investigation into the Illumina/GRAIL case, proceedings are currently suspended and will continue as soon as the clock restarts.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of OMV Slovenija by MOL under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission is concerned that the proposed transaction may reduce competition in the retail motor fuel markets in Slovenia.

The Commission takes note of the judgment of the General Court upholding the Commission’s 2019 decision prohibiting the creation of a joint venture by Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp under the EU Merger Regulation (‘EUMR’).
In its judgement, the General Court fully upheld the Commission’s assessment.
The General Court further found that the Commission correctly concluded that the remedies offered by the parties were insufficient to eliminate the identified significant impediments to effective competition.
See also Curia's press release (in pdf format).

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Welbilt by Ali Group. The approval is conditional on full compliance with commitments offered by Ali Group.

Contract for: (i) the extraction and collection of key qualitative and quantitative information from non-simplified past Commission merger decisions, and delivery of such information to DG COMP in a predetermined format and structure; and (ii) the analysis of the extracted data in a report to be submitted together with the data.

Includes comments on the following cases: Danfoss/Eaton Hydraulics; Merck/Sigma-Aldrich; Aon/Willis Towers Watson; and Orange/Telekom Romania Communications.

The European Commission's Directorate General for Competition will contribute to a public workshop organised by the United States’ Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Department of Justice (“DOJ”) in the framework of the Multilateral Working Group on pharmaceutical mergers (the “Working Group”) formed in March 2021. Working Group members, which also include the Canadian Competition Bureau and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, along with several representatives from academia will participate in the two-day public workshop to discuss key topics in the assessment of pharmaceutical mergers.

The European Commission has launched today a public consultation inviting all interested parties to comment on the draft revised Merger Implementing Regulation and the Notice on Simplified Procedure.

The purpose of this public consultation is to gather stakeholder feedback on the draft revised Merger Implementing Regulation and the draft revised Notice on Simplified Procedure, and in particular on the changes that the Commission proposes.
See also the corresponding press release.

The European Commission takes note of the decision by Kingspan and European Architectural Systems (i.e. the parent company of Trimo) to terminate their proposed agreement according to which Kingspan intended to acquire sole control over Trimo.

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Meggitt by Parker. The approval is conditional on full compliance with commitments offered by Parker.

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Pfleiderer Polska by Kronospan, under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission is concerned that the merger may reduce competition for the supply of various types of woodboard panels in Poland and neighbouring regions.

The European Commission has partially referred the proposed acquisition of a part of McKesson by Phoenix to the French competition authority (‘Autorité de la concurrence'), at its request. The Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed transaction outside France. The Commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in other markets in the European Economic Area.

The European Commission has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of MGM Holdings Inc. by Amazon.com Inc. 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 merger between Cargotec and Konecranes. The approval is conditional on the divestiture of certain businesses.

The Commission takes note of today’s judgments of the General Court dismissing UPS’s and ASL’s claims for damages against the Commission.
UPS’ and ASL’s claims stem from a 2013 Commission decision prohibiting the acquisition of TNT Express by UPS, which was annulled by the General Court in 2017 on the ground of a procedural irregularity. Those findings were subsequently upheld by the Court of Justice in 2019.
See also Curia's joint press release (in PDF) for cases T-834/17 and T-540/18.