Gun-Jumping and EU Merger Control: Selected Issues and Types of Problematic Conduct

Abstract

This contribution seeks to address the problem of gun-jumping on the EU level as a dynamic and topical issue of EU merger control. Gun-jumping has lately gained considerable attention within the area of EU competition law as the European Commission toughened its enforcement of this anti-competitive conduct, imposing heavy fines and delving into complex cases. While the subject-matter is still evolving as we are now awaiting the appeal decision of the Court of Justice in the landmark Altice case, certain conclusions can be drawn based on the existing case-law. This text has the intention to analyse the issue of gun-jumping on the EU level and break down the interpretation of relevant EUMR provisions by the Commission and the CJEU. Furthermore, the article seeks to identify the different types of gun-jumping conduct as established by the decision-making practice.

Keywords: gun-jumping, EU merger control, standstill obligation, notification obligation, Article 7 of the EU Merger Regulation