Review of the Merger Guidelines

France Digitale welcomes the European Commissions initiative to revise the EU Merger Guidelines and views it as an important step toward ensuring that Europe remains a strong and competitive player in the global market.

NetChoice welcomes the European Commissions Review of its Merger Guidelines and supports the Commission's stated objective to ensure merger guidelines are "fit for today's fast-changing economy" while providing predictability for businesses. NetChoice is a trade association of leading internet businesses that promotes the value, convenience, and choice that online business models provide to American consumers.

TDC NET fully supports the initiative to review the Merger Guidelines as mandated in the Mission Letter to Executive Vice President Ribera and outlined in the Commissions Competitiveness Compass. While other global regions are innovating and scaling, Europe is falling behind. European operators are constrained by fragmentation and overregulation, which hinder investments.

ERT is convinced that effective competition law enforcement is critical to ensure open markets, deliver consumer benefits and maintain a fair level-playing field between companies. As the most sophisticated and impactful antitrust enforcer globally, that is seen as the role model for agencies around the world, the European Commissions Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP), is a critical enabler and guardian…

FFTélécoms welcomes the opportunity to respond to the public consultation on the evaluation and impact assessment on merger guidelines. Obviously, EU competition and internal market rules have a direct impact on the competitiveness of the telecommunications sector which is highly strategic at both the EU and national level.

The revision of the EU Merger Guidelines is a unique chance to align competition policy with Europes innovation and competitiveness agenda. Startups, central to building global tech leaders, depend on predictable M&A pathways to scale, recycle capital, and attract investment. Yet Europes shallow exit markets and unpredictable merger control risk pushing founders abroad, draining jobs and IP.

The Danish Chamber of Commerce (Dansk Erhverv) supports the initiative to review the Merger Guidelines as mandated in the Mission Letter to Executive Vice-President Ribera and outlined in the Commissions Competitiveness Compass and Clean Industrial Deal.

We welcome the ECs efforts to review its competition framework. Europe needs a shift in competition policy that enables European companies to innovate, invest, scale up and improve competitiveness (as per Draghi and the Competitiveness Compass). But the guidelines review is not enough. A comprehensive review of the merger framework is needed, including the Merger Regulation and Remedies Notice.

On a general note, Deutsche Telekom welcomes the revision of the Guidelines as a step in the right direction towards modernising the EU Merger Control Framework. However, this is insufficient to meet President von der Leyen´s prospect of new approach to competition policy, better geared to our common goals and more supportive of companies scaling up as set out in her Political Guidelines.

The document is a comprehensive feedback to the European Commissions Call for Evidence on the Review of the Merger Guidelines. It advocates for modernizing the EUs merger control framework to align with the green and digital transitions, emphasizing the integration of data-driven competition, sustainability, and resilience into merger assessments.

Position OF CIGREF ON THE REVISION of EU DIRECTRICES LIGNES ON HORIZONTALS AND NON-HORIZONTAL CONCENTRATIONS CIGREF, a network of 160 large French companies and public administrations, has the task of strengthening the digital capacities of its members. As dutilisers of digital solutions and services, we would like to share our reflections on the revision of the Merger Control Guidelines.

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

The Mergers Working Group of the Antitrust Section of the International Bar Association (Working Group) welcomes the European Commissions effort to refresh the EU Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines (the 'EU merger guidelines') where they appear to be patently out-of-date.

On behalf of Chamber of Progress a tech industry association supporting public policies to build a more inclusive society in which all people benefit from technological advancements please find our response to the European Commission (EC) Call for Evidence on the Merger Guidelines attached.

BREKO welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing debate on the evolution of the merger control guidelines in the EU telecommunications markets. In the German telecommunications market, mergers have not played a significant role in driving fibre deployment or in strengthening competition.

The GSMA and Connect Europe welcome the opportunity to comment on the revision of the EU Merger Guidelines. We recognise that the revision represents a step in the right direction towards modernising the EU Merger Control Framework and bringing it in line with the objectives of the Mission Letter and the current geopolitical and market trends, subject to adopting a revolutionary rather than an evolutionary approach.

Connect Europe and GSMA welcome the opportunity to comment on the revision of the EU Merger Guidelines. We recognise that the revision represents a step in the right direction towards modernising the EU Merger Control Framework and bringing it in line with the objectives of the Mission Letter and the current geopolitical and market trends, subject to adopting a revolutionary rather than an evolutionary approach.

Swedish Incubators & Science Parks (SISP), the national association for Swedens incubators, science parks, and innovation hubs, welcomes the Commissions review of the Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines.

BritCham welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Commissions review of the Merger Guidelines and strongly supports the Commissions ambition to ensure that EU merger control promotes competitiveness, innovation, and resilience.

The upcoming revision of the EU merger guidelines should take into account the specific characteristics of SMEs in European markets. Unlike large multinational corporations, SMEs often lack the financial and legal resources and therefore might face aggressive consolidation trends that reduce market. In particular, some acquisitions can remove innovative SMEs from the market.

The revision of the Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines must be modernized to reflect current market dynamics, particularly in digital and technological sectors, fostering innovation, European competitiveness, and startup growth.

The App Association is a policy trade association for the small business technology developer community. Our members are entrepreneurs, innovators, and independent developers within the global app ecosystem that engage with verticals across every industry.

Competition policies have a significant impact on employment levels, wages and working conditions. Adverse consequences may arise whenever a narrow assessment of the consumer interest and strict economic efficiency tests are insufficiently balanced with social considerations. Merger controls focus narrowly on economic efficiency and consumer welfare and leave little room for the promotion of social dialogue.