BEP calls for the EC to revistalise its assessment of mergers

BEP has called for the European Commission to revitalise its assessment of mergers in a submission to a consultation on the revision of the EU Merger Guidelines. The Guidelines are the European Commission’s framework for assessing whether a proposed merger causes lasting harm to competition in the EU.

This is the first overhaul of the Guidelines since they were adopted in 2004. The proposed revision of the Merger Guidelines follows the Draghi report in 2024 which urged the European Commission to increase the competitiveness of European companies by strengthening their ability to invest and innovate in order to take on foreign giants. That report recommended changes to the Merger Guidelines to facilitate more economic concentration under the guise of creating or supporting "national or European champions”. 

BEP’s submission to the European Commission calls for stronger, not weaker, merger enforcement against a background of merger control failing to prevent entrenched corporate power in Europe over the past decades.

Economic growth and resilience will be best served by strong competition, not allowing a handful of firms to acquire more economic and political power.

BEP recommends:

- Shifting the burden of proving that a merger is not harmful and shouldn’t be blocked to the merging parties; not the Commission.

- Adopting an updated, agile toolkit and approach to assessing market power that reflects market realities and business models - including using financial analysis analytical tools instead of overreliance on Industrial Organisation economics tools - especially given technological advances in rapidly evolving markets and the impact of mergers on society and the economy.

- Scepticism of speculative claims that mergers will generate benefits in the shape of future efficiencies that will outweigh the harms that they cause.

- Factoring in into merger assessments the impacts of mergers on labour markets, media plurality and sustainability.

BEP has contributed to the submission by Digital Merger Watch, which emphasises stronger merger control in digital markets to tackle the threats of the concentration of market power in the hands of a few Big Tech firms.

It also highlights the problems of established players buying up start-ups with anti-competitive objectives, such as to stop challengers to their market power emerging in the future.