Review of the EU Merger Guidelines – Stakeholder Workshops

As part of its ongoing public consultation on the Draft Merger Guidelines (published on 30 April 2026 for replies by 26 June 2026, more information here), DG Competition is organizing an interactive technical stakeholder workshop on key aspects of the draft text of the Merger Guidelines.

The aim of the workshop is to gather views on all sections of the draft text and discuss potential amendments to the final Merger Guidelines. 

During the workshop, participants will be divided into groups. Each group will discuss 4 of the 6 Topics listed below; 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. A summary of the discussions of all groups on each of the 6 Topics will be presented and discussed in a final Plenary.

An agenda will be published on this webpage and shared with participants ahead of the workshop. 

• Topic 1: Bigger and better? Assessing scale and the positive effects of mergers
  This topic includes positive guidance on scale, efficiencies as well as legal and evidentiary burdens and standards for theories of benefit.
• Topic 2: Anatomy of theories of harm: Assessing market power and the negative effects of mergers
  This topic includes market power (including countervailing factors), counterfactual/failing firm, as well as legal and evidentiary burdens and standards for theories of harm.
• Topic 3: Price and non-price effects: How resilience, sustainability, and diversity may influence the dynamics of modern markets and weigh in the balance
  This topic includes parameters of competition such as resilience, sustainability and cultural/media diversity, and corresponding considerations in relation to negative and positive effects of mergers on competition. This topic also covers the question of the balancing of negative and positive effects on different parameters.
• Topic 4: The enforcer’s toolbox: a modernised framework for anticompetitive effects
  This topic includes the effects-based set-up, loss of head-to-head competition, including labour theories of harm, foreclosure, coordination, and other anticompetitive effects.
• Topic 5: Future-Proofing Competition: fostering and protecting innovation and investment 
  This topic includes loss of potential competition, investment and expansion competition, and innovation theories of harm, the innovation shield as well as entrenchment of a dominant position.
• Topic 6: One Europe, One Market: ensuring compliant Member State measures
  This topic includes new guidance on the application of Article 21(4) of the EU Merger Regulation to Member States measures impacting mergers with an EU dimension. 

Registration instructions

Registration is closed.

If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please contact comp-mg-reviewec [dot] europa [dot] eu (comp-mg-review[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

PAST WORKSHOPS

In the context of the review of the Merger Guidelines, as a follow-up to the public consultation, DG Competition organised two interactive technical stakeholder workshops on key aspects of the review of the Merger Guidelines. The aim of the workshops was to gather views on these important topics of the review and discuss how they could be incorporated in the draft Merger Guidelines. 

The workshops were held only in-person. During each workshop, participants were divided into groups to discuss various topics in six Expert Sessions. A list of questions for each Expert session were published on this webpage ahead of the workshop. A summary of the discussions from the Expert Sessions were presented and discussed in two Plenary Sessions:

• Workshop 2: Innovation, Investment, Sustainability, Labour and Democracy
  • Questions Expert Session 1: Mergers and Innovation: Catalyst or Killer? Forward-looking assessment of innovative and dynamic markets
  • Questions Expert Session 2: Likely or not? Tackling uncertainty when assessing dynamic effects on innovation
  • Questions Expert Session 3: Potential Competition and Ecosystems: raising competition barriers or raising the competition bar?
  • Questions Expert Session 4: When green meets competition: navigating sustainability in merger control
  • Questions Expert Session 5: Mergers and monopsony – When can merger control protect European workers?

  • Questions Expert Session 6: The foundations of our democracy: When can merger control protect media plurality?

     

• Workshop 1: Scale, Competitiveness and Efficiencies
  • Questions Expert Session 1: Scaling Success in the Internal Market - The role of EU Merger Control
  • Questions Expert Session 2: Walking the enforcer’s tightrope: From scale to market power
  • Questions Expert Session 3: Champions vs. Diversity : For a resilient Europe
  • Questions Expert Session 4: Efficient or Just Ambitious? Assessing Verifiability of efficiencies in an uncertain world
  • Questions Expert Session 5: Cutting Through the Specificity Fog - Unpacking Merger-Specific Benefits and their Alternatives

  • Questions Expert Session 6: Who should Benefit and What’s the right Balance?

     

The Summaries of the Takeaways from the Merger Guidelines Stakeholders Workshops

If you have any questions regarding the workshops, please contact comp-mg-reviewec [dot] europa [dot] eu (comp-mg-review[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).