Practical Information for Mergers

New rules applicable pursuant to the adoption of 2023 Merger Simplification Package which was adopted on 20 April 2023, and in particular according to the revised Implementing Regulation  2023/914 (as corrected by Implementing Regulation 2024/2776) and new Communication on the transmission of documents.

Transmission of documents to and from the Commission shall take place through digital means, save where the Commission exceptionally agrees that other means may be used.

Electronic submissions delivered by hand or sent by registered post

• Transmissions of over 10 gigabytes in size may be hand delivered or sent by registered post to the Commission’s DG Competition using hard disk drives, formatted in Microsoft Windows-compatible, uncompressed data in a USB 2.0 or 3.0 external enclosure.
• Transmissions of under 10 gigabytes in size. If the Commission exceptionally agrees that other means of transmission may be used (e.g. if EU SEND is not available), may be hand delivered or sent by registered post to DG Competition using external storage devices.
   

Paper submissions delivered by hand or sent by registered post

DG Competition’s Madou building in Brussels will be closed during our public holidays from 23 December 2024 until 02 January 2025. The building will in addition remain closed on Friday 3 January. The hand delivery of documents or other materials for cases to the Madou building will not be possible during that period.

Exceptionally, if the Commission agrees that signing documents digitally is not feasible, a paper submission may be hand delivered or sent by registered post to the Commission’s DG Competition. In this case, the following must be submitted:

• a hand signed paper copy of the complete submission;
• two digital copies of the full submission in external storage devices for information (not signed); and
• a hand signed declaration stating that the signed paper copy and the digital copies are identical.

Documents sent by registered post or by means of hand delivery should be addressed to the Commission’s DG Competition at the address set out here.
 

Timing of submissions

For submissions of a (Short) Form CO and Form RS, time limitations apply. Concretely, if these are transmitted electronically to the Commission on a working day, these are considered received on that same day if an automated acknowledgement of receipt shows in its timestamp that they were received on that day before 17h00 on Mondays-Thursdays and before 16h00 on Fridays and days preceding Commission holidays.

If submitted on a working day after opening hours, submissions of a (Short) Form CO and Form RS are considered received on the next working day.

In the exceptional circumstance that a paper submission of a (Short) Form CO or Form RS is delivered, the same limitations apply.

All documents transmitted electronically to the Commission outside a working day are considered received on the next working day.

Please send case allocation requests to the Merger Registry comp-merger-registryec [dot] europa [dot] eu (by email) no later than 12.00 Brussels time on a Friday, so that DG Competition can allocate staff the following week.

• Model power of attorney for notifications
• Model power of attorney for reasoned submissions
• Template for table for turnover data for notifications
• Template for contact details for competitors and customers
• Template for table for information on national filing obligations for reasoned submissions

As a service to stakeholders, we include below WORD documents containing the relevant submission forms. Please note that only the adopted texts as published in the Official Journal are authentic.

Note that following the adoption of Implementing Regulation 2024/2776 correcting Implementing Regulation 2023/914, while awaiting consolidation only the English version of these documents is up to date.

• Form CO – word template – all language versions
• Short Form CO – word template – all language versions
• Form RS – word template – all language versions
• Form RM – word template – all language versions

To be considered valid, the Power of Attorney for the purposes of a notification, notifications, reasoned submissions, comments on the Commission's objections, commitments offered by the undertakings concerned and the Form RM (sent to DG Competition digitally, by hand or by registered post) must be signed using at least one Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) complying with the requirements set out in Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (the “eIDAS Regulation”). Other types of electronic signatures, such as scanned signatures or Advanced Electronic Signatures as defined in the eIDAS Regulation that do not meet the requirements of QES are not accepted. Please see the Communication on the transmission of documents for more information.

Multiple signees can affix their signatures to a document using various QES. For instance, a notification must bear the signatures of all notifying parties. In certain scenarios, a new signature can inadvertently supersede or compromise a prior one, especially when it alters critical components of the document. This could render the initial signature incapable of verifying whether the original content remains unaltered. Since the Commission cannot offer guidance to stakeholders on the optimal use of diverse commercial solutions, stakeholders are encouraged to seek direct assistance as needed.

For more information on electronic signatures, please see here.

Only paper submissions delivered to DG Competition by hand or sent by registered post can be hand signed.

• Holidays in 2024 - Official Journal C 440/15, 21.11.2022
• Holidays in 2025 - Official Journal C/2024/2219, 20.03.2024