The new EU merger regulation: Implications for EU-U.S. merger strategies

This article examines the implications of the new EU merger regulation (EU 139/2004) on international merger strategies. Important changes in the new regulation on both a substantive and procedural level are analyzed in the comparative context of EU and U.S. merger-control policies. In particular, the article evaluates whether the "substantial impediment to effective competition" (SIEC test in the new regulation implies convergence with the U.S. "substantial lessening of competition" (SLC) benchmark. In this context, the article develops scenarios for convergence between EU and U.S. merger-control policies. The EU merger process has emerged against a background of significant political and institutional development in the European Union, and this is an important explanatory element in the development of competition policy in general and for the new merger regulation in particular. It also has implications for merger strategies examined at the end of the article.