“The Commission proposes, the Council decides, the Court interprets.” To what extent is this statement an accurate assessment of the development of EC competition law with respect to mergers?

THE ec Competition Law and mergers

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 2

SECTION 1 MERGER REGULATION AND DEVELOPMENT 2

SECTION 1 .1 ONE-STOP SHOP ' PRINCIPLE 4

SECTION 1 .2 COMMUNITY DIMENSION 4

SECTION 1 .3 ARTICLE 1 (2 ) 5

SECTION 1 .4 THE 2 /3 RULE . 5

SECTION 1 .5 ARTICLE 21 (3 . 5

SECTION 1 .6 NATIONAL MERGER CONTROL SYSTEMS . 6

SECTION 2 THE COMMISSION GREEN AND THE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS . 8

SECTION 2 .1 MANDATORY 3 SYSTEM . 8

SECTION 2 .2 REFERRAL SYSTEM . 9

SECTION 2 .3 ARTICLE 81

9

SECTION 2 .4 STANDARD OF PROOF AND SCOPE OF JUDICIAL REVIEW . 10

SECTION 2 .5 IMPACT OF THE TETRA LAVAL II CASE . 10

SECTION 2 .6 EDP V COMMISSION 12

SECTION 2 .7 ARTICLE 9 12

SECTION 2 .8 ARTICLE 22 (3 . 14

SECTION 3 ENFORCEMENT GAP : OLD EC MERGER REGULATION 203 . 15

SECTION 3 .1 COUNCIL 15

SECTION 3 .2 THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE 16

CONCLUSION 18

BIBLIOGRAPHY 19

Introduction

The five principal institutions entrusted with carrying out the tasks of the Community are , the Council , the Commission , the European Parliament the Court of Auditors and the Court of Justice . The Commission holds two kinds of judicial powers , which are based on the first indent to Article 211 (ex Article 155 . First , the Commission can bring actions against Member States when they are in breach of Community law under Article 226 (ex Article 169 ) EC . Second , The Commission acts in certain areas as investigator and as an initial judge of a Treaty violation , whether by private firms or by Member States . Hence , there are certain circumstances where the Commission acts as a judge and resolves disputes , and therefore it not only proposes but also decides . The two most important areas are in respect of competition policy and state aids . The Commission 's decisions are subject to review by the Community 's judiciary , which is normally the Court of First Instance or CFI . This enables the Commission to devise new strategies in relation to particular aspects of competition policy or state aids . Further , the Commission gives guidance to national courts in respect of the more precise meaning of broadly framed Treaty Articles

Section 1 . Merger Regulation and Development

Mergers are very frequent in the Corporate Sector and usually take place in to meet the requirements of dynamic competition resulting in improving growth and standard of living in the Community . The process of reform to the Merger Regulation commenced in July 2000 , with the submission of a report to the Council by the Commission in respect of the application and functioning of the Merger Regulation . On December 11 , 2002 the European Commission published its Proposal for a Council Regulation on the control of concentrations between undertakings Articles 1 (4 ) and (5 ) and 9 (10 ) of the EC Merger regulation included the Commission to review the turnover thresholds and the case referral rules and the Commission took this opportunity to examine the operation of the Regulation as a whole . The most...