Tag: Antitrustpolitics

New German FDI association – Learnings from the first annual meeting

Practitioners often criticize the lack of transparency in FDI proceedings in Germany (and elsewhere). The fact that decisions are not made public further adds to that lack of transparency. So, the inaugural meeting of the German “Forum Investitionsprüfung”, which was also attended by many representatives from German ministries, presented a valuable opportunity to gain insights … Continue reading New German FDI association – Learnings from the first annual meeting →

Germany blocks the full acquisition of an already majority-owned company

News broke yesterday that the German government prohibited the acquisition of 45% of the shares in a German satellite company by a Chinese acquirer. The notable twist: The acquirer already held 53% of the shares in the target. Kleo Connect is a German start-up that wants to provide global satellite data communications. 53% of its … Continue reading Germany blocks the full acquisition of an already majority-owned company →

EU Commission already under pressure to investigate foreign subsidies?

The EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation started to apply about a month ago. Most observers expected the regulation’s strongest impact to be on M&A transactions, not least because the European Commission does not exactly seem to have an abundance of staff to deal with the new rules. Yet, the regulator received at least two complaints against … Continue reading EU Commission already under pressure to investigate foreign subsidies? →

Politics in antitrust – Look no further

Anyone who still doubted that politics play an increasing role in antitrust should by now be convinced of the opposite: The recent appointment of the new Chief Economist at the European Commission is another instance where antitrust made it to the mainstream press across Europe. This post provides a short summary of what happened and … Continue reading Politics in antitrust – Look no further →

Pharma and mergers – future alignment of multinational competition issues?

Co-authored by Carolin Goldbeck Those of you who follow this blog closely will remember that we touched upon the Pharmaceutical Merger Task Force, consisting of American and European regulators, in a short paragraph a while ago (here). Back then, we did not see any dramatic changes in the approach of competition authorities to assess mergers … Continue reading Pharma and mergers – future alignment of multinational competition issues? →

Simplifying EU merger control filings

Today, the European Commission adopted a package to simplify its merger control process for transactions that do not raise concerns. Many practitioners will agree that in the past, opting to submit a simplified filing did not necessarily simplify or expedite a case. Let’s take a look at how the Commission intends to change that. Merger … Continue reading Simplifying EU merger control filings →