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State aid
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25/06/2025
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New State aid framework enables support for clean industry
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Mergers
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25/06/2025
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Commission opens in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition of Kellanova by Mars
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The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Kellanova by Mars. The Commission has preliminary concerns that the transaction could lead to higher prices for consumers due to Mars' increased negotiating power towards retailers in the European Economic Area.
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23/06/2025
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Commission approves the acquisition of Dorna by Liberty Media without conditions
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The European Commission has unconditionally approved the proposed acquisition of Dorna Sports S.L. by Liberty Media Corporation under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission concluded that the merger would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area.
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Court
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26/06/2025
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EVH v Commission
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The Commission takes note of the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union upholding the 2023 judgments of the General Court. In its judgments, the General Court upheld a 2019 Commission's decision approving, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of certain E.ON power generation assets by RWE.
In its judgments, the Court of Justice confirmed that the Commission was correct in assessing the different parts of the asset swap as two separate concentrations.
Furthermore, the Court of Justice confirmed that the analytical framework applied by the Commission was sufficiently and adequately explained.
See also Curia's press release (in PDF format).
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26/06/2025
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Commission v Spain (Participations indirectes)
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The Commission takes note of today’s judgment of the Court of Justice upholding a previous judgment of the General Court which had annulled the Commission decision of 2014 on the Spanish Goodwill aid scheme for indirect acquisitions.
The original scheme, a Spanish tax scheme concerning the amortisation of financial goodwill only for qualified acquisitions of shares in foreign companies, had already been declared illegal and incompatible aid by way of Commission decisions of 2009 and 2011. In the 2009 and 2011 decisions, the Commission accepted legitimate expectations for certain situations stemming from Commission responses to parliamentary questions in 2005-2006, consequently waiving the recovery in such cases. These decisions were fully upheld by the Court of Justice in 2021.
In 2012, Spain adopted a new administrative interpretation retroactively extending the scope of the scheme to indirect acquisitions subject to the legitimate expectations covered by the 2009 and 2011 decisions. The Commission decision of 2014 declared that the retroactive extension of scope amounted to new aid and could not benefit from legitimate expectations, as it had been implemented by Spain in 2012, when the 2009 and 2011 decisions had already confirmed that the scheme amounted to State aid.
In today’s judgment, the Court of Justice dismissed the appeal by the Commission, confirming the annulment of the 2014 decision. The Court of Justice ruled that the wording of the legitimate expectations acknowledged in the 2009 and 2011 decisions expressly refers to both direct and indirect transactions, thus both types of acquisitions are protected from the obligation to recover the aid. Furthermore, the Court of Justice found that the principle of legal certainty precludes the Commission from classifying the extension of the scope to indirect acquisitions as unlawful new aid.
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Events
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30/06/2025
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DMA 2025 compliance workshops
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The European Commission is organizing a series of compliance workshops with interested third parties to receive their views on specific issues and questions that may arise in relation to the measures that Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bytedance, Meta and Microsoft have put in place to ensure effective compliance of their core platforms services with the DMA.
These compliance workshops are scheduled as follows:
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Public consultations
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05/06/2025 - 31/07/2025
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Review of the State aid rules on the Services of General Economic Interest (“SGEI”)
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To tackle the housing crisis, the Commission will put forward a European affordable housing plan with focus on housing affordability and will revise State aid rules for services of general economic interest (“SGEI”). The updated SGEI rules will allow Member States to support affordable and energy-efficient housing in a faster and simpler way. Moreover, following an evaluation, the Commission will include a number of technical modifications to the SGEI rules.
See also the Commission's press release.
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08/05/2025 - 03/09/2025
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Review merger guidelines : General and Targeted consultations
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The Commission is proposing to revise both the Horizontal Merger Guidelines (published in 2004) as well as the Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines (published in 2008) in a holistic exercise. The goal is to ensure the Guidelines are up-to-date in order to allow the Commission to continue to protect competition under the Merger Regulation in evolving market realities, while not intervening in transactions that do not harm competition. The Commission will conduct concurrently both an Evaluation and an Impact Assessment to support the review of the Guidelines.
The Commission is running two consultations in parallel: a general public consultation questionnaire as well as an in-depth questionnaire on seven specific topics that are relevant for the Commission's assessment. Deadline for both consultations is 3 September 2025.
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Open calls for tender
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10/06/2025 - 24/09/2025
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Training of National Judges in EU Competition Law
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The objective of this call for proposals is to co-finance projects aiming to train national judges in the context of enforcing European competition rules. This includes public and private enforcement of both the Antitrust rules and the State aid rules, thereby increasing the knowledge and know-how of national judges. The final aim is to ensure a coherent and consistent application of EU competition law by national courts.
Projects should address at least one of the thematic priorities listed in the documentation but may address more than one.
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New legislation
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