Merger Control in Europe At A Glance
Capabilities and Services
The 2004 revised EC Merger Regulation (ECMR) changed the substantive test from the "creation or strengthening of a dominant position" to "significant impediment to effective competition" (SIEC) and put economics at the core of merger control investigations. The European Commission has also issued guidelines on horizontal and non-horizontal mergers, which are applied by the Chief Economist and his team of specialists in microeconomics, industrial organization, game theory, statistics, and econometrics.
Economics has similarly become central to enforcement at the European member state level, with ever more authorities appointing chief economists and expert economic staff. NERA has been involved in many of the most high profile merger inquiries of recent years, and we have advised on the full range of economic issues across the economy.
