Here is a guest post by Pascal Berghe on current developments in Europe.

Consultations on merger remedies

The EU Commission released a draft notice to replace the current Merger Remedies Notice dating of 2001. The draft notice takes into account the conclusions of the Commission’s 2005 study on the implementation and effectiveness of merger remedies and recent case-law. It also realises the necessary adaptation to bring the notice in line with the new regulation EC Merger Regulation adopted in 2004 (Regulation 139/2004). The implementing regulation (Reg. 802/2004) is slightly amended as well, with the creation of a “Form RM” to describe the commitments proposed by the parties. Upon a first quick glance, the 35-page draft notice discusses in much more detail what type of remedies may be suitable (divestiture of a viable and competitive business, divestiture of crown jewels, and other remedies such as access remedies and change in long-term exclusive contracts). It also recommends the inclusion of a review clause in the proposed commitments. With regard to procedure, it addresses separately the necessary requirements that commitments must meet when submitted during Phase I or Phase II. Lastly, it provides guidance on the different phases of the implementation process (including the role of the trustee and post-implementation monitoring). Clearly, the document is worth a closer analysis. If reading the document inspires any comments, they may be submitted to the Commission until June 3, 2007.

Consultation on state aid reform

If you are not interested in mergers, the Commission launched a second consultation on the same day on simplified rules for block exemptions in state aid. State aid reform has been one of the Commission’s priorities. The new draft Block Exemption Regulation (BER) consolidates the five existing BERs and creates new eligible categories of aids (environmental aid, risk capital aid and extension of R&D aid to large undertakings). In implementing its 2005 State Aid Action Plan, the Commission’s general motto is to promote “less and better targeted aid” that achieves horizontal (ie non sector specific) objectives. The deadline for comments is also June 3, 2007.

Technorati Tags: antitrust, competition law

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