Antitrust merger regulation is highly specialized and it is not easy to grasp the overall picture. Not many companies have extensive experience of merger reviews and if a company fails to address the issue until it is faced with a large-scale M&A project that may decide its fate, it may be too late. So, we recommend that companies acquire an in-depth understanding of these reviews as far in advance as possible.

NERA has been providing consulting services based on economic analysis in numerous cases involving antitrust merger regulation and in June 2014, we published a summary of our accumulated experience in "Economic Analysis in Merger Regulation (publisher: Chuokeizai-sha Holdings, Inc.)

In this seminar, practicing economists who have been involved in a variety of merger reviews from JFTC's Corporate Merger Division and NERA have provided briefings from a practitioner’s perspective, based on the content of publication mentioned above, including (1) a summary of procedures and merger guidelines; (2) tips for preparing data and creating explanatory materials; and (3) the role of economic analysis.

(A copy of the above-mentioned "Economic Analysis in Merger Regulation" was presented to all seminar participants who wanted one).

1. Summary of antitrust merger regulation

2. Merger review procedures: Pre-notification consultations and the review process

3. The concept of "substantially restricting competition in prescribed areas of trade"

4. Re: Prescribed areas of trade

    (a) Hypothetical test for monopolistic operators

    (b) Product range

    (c) Geographical range

    (d) Possibility of defining cross-border markets

5. Re: Analysis of competition (substantive decision on competition)

    (a) Scenarios of independent actions and cooperative actions

    (b) Criteria for safe harbor

    (c) Status of corporate groups involved in a deal and the situation of competitors

    (d) Imports

    (e) Market entry

    (f) Competitive pressures from adjacent markets

    (g) Competitive pressures from users

    (h) Efficiency

    (i) Management situation of corporate groups involved in a deal

6. Vertical mergers/mixed mergers

7. Measures to resolve issues (to eliminate substantial restrictions on competition)

8. Q&A session