Multi-Jurisdictional Merger Review Procedures - A Better Way

Abstract

Corporate mergers are a worldwide phenomenon involving trillions of dollars and have the potential to significantly impact upon national economies. For these reasons they are increasingly being regulated as more and more countries seek to control them through competition law regimes and the size of the mergers themselves invite multiple regulatory responses because they have an impact in more than one country. It is argued that this has led to a level of regulation that goes beyond what is required to protect national economies from undesirable merger activity. Current deficiencies in the regulation of multijurisdictional mergers are identified, the proposals put forward by the ICN are examined and recommendations are made for further reform.

Keywords: competition law, international competition network, mergers, antitrust

JEL Classification: K21