The EU Merger Working Group has issued a report today on the information requirements for national merger notifications in the EU Member States. The report is based on a comparison of notification forms and information obligations in all the 27 EU Member States with a merger regime and in Norway. The detailed tables annexed to the report enable merging parties to obtain a quick overview of which information is required in each jurisdiction in the context of a merger that meets the respective national thresholds.

The report can also play an important role when individual Member States decide to revise or reform their notification forms in the future. The Merger Working Group’s project has confirmed that there is already a significant level of convergence across national EU jurisdictions and that some differences remain. Merging parties need to submit the same categories of information to ensure that the transaction’s likely impact on competition can be assessed.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “The comparison provided by the Merger Working Group is the right instrument to foster soft convergence with regard to information requirements for merger notifications. The tables make it very easy for a national competition authority to determine how information-intensive its requirements are in comparison to those of its sister agencies in other Member States.”

The report also points out that in Germany information requirements are very limited. Mandatory information is restricted to basic facts about the transaction, the parties and market conditions. Additional information is only required if necessary for the competitive assessment of the case.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “I am convinced that the Bundeskartellamt’s approach to requiring only a very limited amount of information up-front is focused, effective and facilitates a speedy review process. However, it may not be easy to apply this model in other jurisdictions. It only works well in the right institutional and procedural context.”

The Bundeskartellamt and all its sister agencies in the EU Member States are represented in the EU Merger Working Group, alongside the EU Commission. National authorities from the other EEA countries take part as observers.

The report (including the comparison tables) can be downloaded from the website of the EU Commission under the following link.