The European Commission’s competition authority, DG Competition, is currently revising its merger guidelines. We are closely monitoring this process and are advocating for a strengthening of the guidelines in order to prevent further anti-competitive mergers and the resulting harm—particularly to consumers and smaller businesses.
Jointly at the Commission’s workshop with colleagues from the Open Markets Institute and the Balanced Economy Project.
The process to date
The European Commission has set up a consultation process for the revision, in which we participated last year with a written submission. The submission is available here.
To help shape the political debate, we jointly organised a cross-party event in the European Parliament with allied organisations in November 2025. More information is available here. In December and January 2026, the Commission invited stakeholders to workshops in Brussels, in which we also participated.
The workshops were attended largely by companies, law firms representing corporate clients, and consulting firms. Civil society was underrepresented. As a result, we played an important role as one of the few voices countering the current trend in the EU towards approving more mergers and, consequently, allowing further market concentration. We presented our arguments accordingly in the relevant expert workshops.
Need for reform in merger assessment methodologies
There is a particular need for action with regard to the methods used to assess concentrations. We are advocating for the use of a broader range of analytical tools. Instead of the current, almost exclusive reliance on econometric models, we call for increased use of financial analysis, systematic examination of internal corporate strategy documents, and closer scrutiny of intellectual property rights—where concentration trends are also evident, especially in the technology sector.
Conflict of interest in a key reference study for the guideline revision?
It is regrettable that DG Competition is relying on a study authored by the economic consultancy Oxera for this revision process. Oxera advises at the same time powerful corporations on mergers and acquisitions. This concern is further exacerbated by the fact that the author of the study is a former Chief Economist of DG Competition who has since moved to the private sector. There is no shortage of independent academics who could have been commissioned as an alternative.
What comes next?
On 5 March, the European Commission will host a conference on merger control, which we will also attend. The first draft of the revised guidelines is expected in April. We will continue to follow the process closely and engage in dialogue with the Commission. We also remain in contact with Members of the European Parliament in order to increase public pressure for stricter merger control in Europe.
Photos: Max Bank.
