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Competition Policy

Mergers Notices and Guidelines

Consolidated Jurisdictional Notice

The consolidated Commission Jurisdictional Notice replaced the four jurisdictional Notices adopted by the Commission in 1998 under Council Regulation No. 4064/89. These were (i) the Notice on the concept of concentration, (ii) the Notice on the concept of full-function joint ventures, (iii) the Notice on the concept of undertakings concerned and (iv) the Notice on calculation of turnover

Commission Consolidated Jurisdictional Notice under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (the "Merger Regulation").

Language versions published in the OJ C95 of 16.04.2008: bg | cs | da | el | en | es | et | fi | hu | it | lt | lv | mt | nl | pl | pt | ro | sk | sl | sv

Corrected language versions de and fr published in the OJ C 43 of 21.02.2009: de | fr

 

Notice on Simplified Procedure

Commission Notice on a simplified treatment for certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (the “Notice on Simplified Procedure”)(Official Journal C 160, 5.5.2023, p. 1-10)

As part of its initiative to further simplify EU merger control procedures, the Commission has adopted on 20 April 2023 a new Notice on Simplified Procedure, that will replace Commission Notice of 5 December 2013 on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 and Corrigendum to Commission notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004.

This new Notice on Simplified Procedure will enter into force on 1 September 2023. Until then, please refer to the Commission Notice of 5 December 2013 on a simplified procedure for the purpose of your merger notifications.

All information on the main changes made in the context of the Commission’s initiative to further simplify EU merger control procedures can be found in the Press release and the Q&A document on this matter.

As a result, also the format and practicalities of notifications will change on 1 September 2023. For all information and templates, go to the dedicated webpage for this initiative and to practical information.

 

Notices and Guidelines on substance

Non-horizontal Guidelines
Guidelines on the assessment of non-horizontal mergers under the Council Regulation on the control of concentrations between undertakings
Official Journal C 265 of 18/10/2008

Horizontal Guidelines
Guidelines on the assessment of horizontal mergers under the Council Regulation on the control of concentrations between undertakings
Official Journal C 31, 05.02.2004, p. 5-18
Relevant Market
Commission notice on the definition of the relevant market for the purposes of Community competition law
Official Journal C/2024/1645, 22.02.2024

Remedies
Commission Notice on remedies acceptable under the Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 and under Commission Regulation (EC) No 802/2004
Official Journal C 267, 22.10.2008, p. 1-27
Ancillary restraints
Commission Notice on restrictions directly related and necessary to concentrations
Official Journal C 56, 05.03.2005, p. 24-31
Abandonment of concentrations
DG Competition Information note on Art. 6 (1) c 2nd sentence of Regulation 139/2004
Access to file

Commission Notice on the rules for access to the Commission file
Official Journal C 325, 22.12.2005, p. 7-15

Case referrals

Commission Notice on Case Referral in respect of concentrations
Official Journal C 56, 05.03.2005, p. 2-23

Guidance on the application of the referral mechanism set out in Article 22 of the Merger Regulation to certain categories of cases
Official Journal C 113, 31.3.2021, p. 1–6

UK withdrawal
Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community
Official Journal C 384I, 12.11.2019, p. 1