An impact of the recent economic crisis upon the control of mergers of competitors in the EU The purpose of this thesis is to analyse an impact of the recent economic crisis upon the control of mergers of competitors in the EU. It is established as an initial hypotheses that the economic crisis had considerable impact upon the EC merger control. The thesis is composed of six chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of the above mentioned topic. Chapter One is introductory and defines basic terminology used in the thesis. The chapter is subdivided into two parts. Part One describes pre-crisis legal framework of EC merger control. Part Two deals with dominant pre-crisis theoretical approaches towards EC merger control. Chapter Two examines origin and development of the recent economic crisis, various regulatory responses to it, as well as the joint action of EU Member States towards dealing with consequences of the economic crisis. The chapter consists of seven parts, last one of them attempts to compare current situation in the EU with historical example of US antitrust enforcement during national crises. Chapter Three is focused on the impact of the recent economic crisis on EC merger control. It is subdivided into nine parts and provides an outline of the consistency on the principles...

The main goal in this paper is to make an in-depth analysis of the regulatory situations that can arise during mergers when political involvement takes place. The research is based on four controversial merger cases of undertakings within the same country (E.On-Ruhrgas), European Union countries (E.On-Endesa, Unicredit-Hypoverein) and between companies from the USA (Boeing-McDonnell Douglas) that have effect on the European market. We analyze the four mergers using Michele Ruta and Massimo Motta models from the paper "A Political Economy of Merger Policy in International Markets" (2008). By the end of the research we reached the conclusion that due to some lapses in the European Commission Merger regulation at the time of the mergers, as well as due to government involvement in the mergers, they are not always cleared in the benefit of the market competition or consumer welfare, but due to nationalistic interests of governments to have big players on the market or to keep governmental power in certain industries, even with the risk of harming competition. Along with this, from the mergers analyzed here, it becomes clear that local or union authorities scrutinize the foreign acquirers more.

O presente trabalho busca analisar os diferentes tratamentos dispensados à marca no âmbito do controle preventivo e no controle repressivo de condutas. A análise da função social das marcas demonstrou que esta é uma propriedade que se realiza na concorrência e pela concorrência. Nesse sentido, não há dúvidas de que está sujeita aos princípios do Direito Concorrencial. Todavia, a maneira como esses princípios balizam a marca no controle de atos de concentração, de um lado, e no controle repressivo de condutas, de outro, difere. No âmbito do controle de atos de concentração, a atuação da autoridade concorrencial é orientada por uma variante do princípio da precaução, o que a autoriza a tomar decisões e impor restrições aos direitos marcários mesmo em um contexto de incerteza. No âmbito do controle repressivo de condutas, todavia, a intervenção do CADE está sujeita aos princípios do Processo Administrativo Sancionador. Neste contexto, as condutas que envolvem o uso de direitos de propriedade intelectual, incluindo as marcas, devem ser analisadas à luz do princípio da estrita legalidade. Um critério jurídico objetivo é necessário para distinguir o lícito do ilícito, sobretudo em um cenário no qual estão em jogo duas políticas públicas distintas: a de proteção à concorrência e a de proteção à direitos de propriedade industrial. Sendo essas duas políticas instrumentais e parciais, voltadas a um fim maior de política econômica, devem harmonizar-se, e não sobrepor-se uma a outra. Ademais, o escopo de atuação da autoridade concorrencial em processos que investiguem o uso abusivo de direitos marcários e atos de concorrência desleal deve ser esclarecido. O direito concorrencial, enquanto ramo autônomo do direito, com princípios e métodos interpretativos próprios, pode analisar institutos e figuras de outros ramos que com ele guardem relação sem ter de ficar adstrito ao posicionamento de outras instâncias. / This work has the purposes of analyzing the different treatments trademarks are subject in the fields of merger control and antitrust infringement proceedings. The analysis of the social function of trademark showed that it is a property that becomes effective in and by means of competition. In this sense, there is no doubt that it is subject to the principles of Antitrust Law. However, the way these principles limits trademark rights in the context of merger control, on one side, and, antitrust infringement proceedings, on the other, varies. In the field of merger control, the antitrust authority is guided by a variant of the precautionary principle, which empowers it to make decisions and impose restrictions to trademark rights even in a context of uncertainty. However, under antitrust infringement proceedings, CADEs intervention is subject to the principles of the Sanctioning Administrative Procedure. As a result, the conducts that involve intellectual property rights, including trademark rights, must be analyzed in view of the principle of strict legality. An objective legal criterion is necessary to distinguish licit from illicit behaviors especially under a scenario where two different public policies are at stake: the one relating to competition defense and the other concerning the protection to intellectual property rights. Since these two policies are instrumental, partial and targeted to a higher objective connected with economic policy, they should be harmonized and not overlap each other. In addition, the scope of the competition authoritys jurisdiction in antitrust infringement proceedings which investigate the abuse of trademark laws and acts of unfair competition should be clarified. Antitrust law, as an independent legal field, which contains its own principles and interpretation methods, can analyze institutes from other legal fields to which it is related without being bound by the positioning of other instances.

<p>The decision of the European Commission to block the merger between Volvo and Scania in the late 90’s became the starting point to the debate of the possible discriminating effects of the European merger regulation. Especially since the Commission a few years earlier had approved of the merger between Mercedes-Benz and Kässbohrer on the German bus market, where the conditions for competition had been similar to those at hand in the Swedish case. The issue that was and still is in focus is whether the European merger regulation is more difficult to pass for large companies situated on a smaller domestic market than is the case for their competitors of corresponding size but situated on a larger domestic market.</p><p>This thesis aims at examining what the judgement of the geographical relevant market means for the application of the Merger act. This is being done from two perspectives. Firstly how the geographical criterion affects large merging companies situated on a relatively small domestic market and secondly how it affects a member state like Sweden, which is so dependent on its large companies. The purpose of this thesis also opens for a discussion of how rigid the merger control can be in an open market economy.</p><p>The company perspective of the purpose is being pursued in two studies of the merger cases Volvo-Scania and Mercedes-Benz/Kässbohrer, being four national champs with differing size of domestic markets. The member state angle considers the smaller state dependence on its large companies and if that dependence itself creates a disadvantage in a merger case. The end of the purpose opens for a common discussion of the legitimacy of merger control in an open market economy. After analysing these aspects the thesis concludes that the geographical criterion makes it impossible for large companies with a relatively small domestic market to merge when a market bears the stamp of brand loyalty. Considering the small member state the conclusion is that the European merger control offers both pros and cons for consumers and that smaller states would be better off with a more producer-oriented merger law. The ending conclusion questions the Merger act as an intervening tool because of its arbitrary aspect depending on which composition the Commission has when a merger is announced.</p>

This thesis aims at examining the main motives for mergers and acquisitions with special reference to the effect of globalization on these business strategies and making a comparative analysis of the Turkish merger control rules with that of the EU and the Central and Eastern European Countries so as to evaluate to what extent the Turkish legislation is in harmony with the Community acquis and whether the EU membership process had the same effect on the introduction of merger control rules in Turkey and in these ex-candidate countries.

The decision of the European Commission to block the merger between Volvo and Scania in the late 90’s became the starting point to the debate of the possible discriminating effects of the European merger regulation. Especially since the Commission a few years earlier had approved of the merger between Mercedes-Benz and Kässbohrer on the German bus market, where the conditions for competition had been similar to those at hand in the Swedish case. The issue that was and still is in focus is whether the European merger regulation is more difficult to pass for large companies situated on a smaller domestic market than is the case for their competitors of corresponding size but situated on a larger domestic market. This thesis aims at examining what the judgement of the geographical relevant market means for the application of the Merger act. This is being done from two perspectives. Firstly how the geographical criterion affects large merging companies situated on a relatively small domestic market and secondly how it affects a member state like Sweden, which is so dependent on its large companies. The purpose of this thesis also opens for a discussion of how rigid the merger control can be in an open market economy. The company perspective of the purpose is being pursued in two studies of the merger cases Volvo-Scania and Mercedes-Benz/Kässbohrer, being four national champs with differing size of domestic markets. The member state angle considers the smaller state dependence on its large companies and if that dependence itself creates a disadvantage in a merger case. The end of the purpose opens for a common discussion of the legitimacy of merger control in an open market economy. After analysing these aspects the thesis concludes that the geographical criterion makes it impossible for large companies with a relatively small domestic market to merge when a market bears the stamp of brand loyalty. Considering the small member state the conclusion is that the European merger control offers both pros and cons for consumers and that smaller states would be better off with a more producer-oriented merger law. The ending conclusion questions the Merger act as an intervening tool because of its arbitrary aspect depending on which composition the Commission has when a merger is announced.

This paper applies an intuitive approach based on stock market data to a unique dataset of large concentrations during the period 1990-2002 to assess the effectiveness of European merger control. The basic idea is to relate announcement and decision abnormal returns. Under a set of four maintained assumptions, merger control might be interpreted to be effective if rents accruing due to the increased market power observed around the merger announcement are reversed by the antitrust decision, i.e. if there is a negative relation between announcement and decision abnormal returns. To clearly identify the events' competitive effects, we explicitly control for the market expectation about the outcome of the merger control procedure and run several robustness checks to assess the role of our maintained assumptions. We find that only outright prohibitions completely reverse the rents measured around a merger's announcement. On average, remedies seem to be only partially capable of reverting announcement abnormal returns. Yet they seem to be more effective when applied during the first rather than the second investigation phase and in subsamples where our assumptions are more likely to hold. Moreover, the European Commission appears to learn over time. (authors' abstract)

BIG DATA AND EU MERGER CONTROL ABSTRACT The significance of "big data" as a factor in the competitive assessment of mergers in EU has attracted more and more attention in the past years. Today's digital economy revolves around the Internet and information technologies that together enabled collecting and processing previously unimaginable sets of data, high in volume, velocity, variety and value. Data started to present a valuable and important asset to various businesses, mainly active on online platforms. Consequently, companies may engage in strategic mergers in order to acquire profitable data from one another. The aim of this master thesis is to research and analyse whether big data could result in the increased market power of the newly merged company or could have detrimental effects on other competitors present on the market or the competition itself. The main research question therefore is whether big data in its essence could constitute a competitive concern when it comes to data-related mergers. This thesis initially clarifies the concept and characteristics of "big data" in general, whilst demonstrating the increasing significance of data used as assets for businesses in the present digital economy. The research then focuses on what role specific features of data could play in various stages of...

O presente trabalho busca analisar os diferentes tratamentos dispensados à marca no âmbito do controle preventivo e no controle repressivo de condutas. A análise da função social das marcas demonstrou que esta é uma propriedade que se realiza na concorrência e pela concorrência. Nesse sentido, não há dúvidas de que está sujeita aos princípios do Direito Concorrencial. Todavia, a maneira como esses princípios balizam a marca no controle de atos de concentração, de um lado, e no controle repressivo de condutas, de outro, difere. No âmbito do controle de atos de concentração, a atuação da autoridade concorrencial é orientada por uma variante do princípio da precaução, o que a autoriza a tomar decisões e impor restrições aos direitos marcários mesmo em um contexto de incerteza. No âmbito do controle repressivo de condutas, todavia, a intervenção do CADE está sujeita aos princípios do Processo Administrativo Sancionador. Neste contexto, as condutas que envolvem o uso de direitos de propriedade intelectual, incluindo as marcas, devem ser analisadas à luz do princípio da estrita legalidade. Um critério jurídico objetivo é necessário para distinguir o lícito do ilícito, sobretudo em um cenário no qual estão em jogo duas políticas públicas distintas: a de proteção à concorrência e a de proteção à direitos de propriedade industrial. Sendo essas duas políticas instrumentais e parciais, voltadas a um fim maior de política econômica, devem harmonizar-se, e não sobrepor-se uma a outra. Ademais, o escopo de atuação da autoridade concorrencial em processos que investiguem o uso abusivo de direitos marcários e atos de concorrência desleal deve ser esclarecido. O direito concorrencial, enquanto ramo autônomo do direito, com princípios e métodos interpretativos próprios, pode analisar institutos e figuras de outros ramos que com ele guardem relação sem ter de ficar adstrito ao posicionamento de outras instâncias. / This work has the purposes of analyzing the different treatments trademarks are subject in the fields of merger control and antitrust infringement proceedings. The analysis of the social function of trademark showed that it is a property that becomes effective in and by means of competition. In this sense, there is no doubt that it is subject to the principles of Antitrust Law. However, the way these principles limits trademark rights in the context of merger control, on one side, and, antitrust infringement proceedings, on the other, varies. In the field of merger control, the antitrust authority is guided by a variant of the precautionary principle, which empowers it to make decisions and impose restrictions to trademark rights even in a context of uncertainty. However, under antitrust infringement proceedings, CADEs intervention is subject to the principles of the Sanctioning Administrative Procedure. As a result, the conducts that involve intellectual property rights, including trademark rights, must be analyzed in view of the principle of strict legality. An objective legal criterion is necessary to distinguish licit from illicit behaviors especially under a scenario where two different public policies are at stake: the one relating to competition defense and the other concerning the protection to intellectual property rights. Since these two policies are instrumental, partial and targeted to a higher objective connected with economic policy, they should be harmonized and not overlap each other. In addition, the scope of the competition authoritys jurisdiction in antitrust infringement proceedings which investigate the abuse of trademark laws and acts of unfair competition should be clarified. Antitrust law, as an independent legal field, which contains its own principles and interpretation methods, can analyze institutes from other legal fields to which it is related without being bound by the positioning of other instances.

A comparison of merger control in the EU and the USA focusing on efficiency defence and failing company defence This paper compares the interpretation of efficiency defence and failing company defence in horizontal mergers in the EU and the USA. The arguments for each were first introduced in the decisional practice of US antitrust authorities and then included in the Merger Guidelines. Over the years both types of defence have been used in US antitrust law. Harsh criticism of the prohibition of several mergers at the beginning of the 21st century led to the reform of European merger control. Among other things, the reforms introduced efficiency defence and failing company defence. Given the complexity of competition law and the many factors that influence it, several background issues must first be analyzed, such as basic economic theories of competition law, the economic grounds for mergers and the political background. After comparing the relevant written law, the case law regarding efficiency defence and failing company defence in both jurisdictions is described. In this way the developments of the doctrines are clearly visible. Subsequently the current situation is described by comparing the requirements set by written law and their interpretation by decisional practice. It was found that the...