Cooperation in Multijurisdictional Merger Filings: the ECA Notice Mechanism
Creators: name: Prates, Rita
name: Bayão Horta, Ricardo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: merger control
cooperation
Competition Authorities
ECA Notice
European Competition Authorities
transnational merger transactions
cooperation mechanism
EU national merger control
merger transactions
National Competition Authorities
merging parties
European Commission
multijurisdictional flings
cooperation by national competition
authorities and European Commission
referral mechanisms
ECA Notice mechanism
European Union's jurisdictions
merger proceedings
European Union Member States
national merger control
EFTA
NCA
European Competition Network
EEA
cooperation amongst Competition Authorities

description: This unit was published in „International Cooperation of Competition Authorities in Europe: from Bilateral Agreements to Transgovernmental Networks” Błachucki, M., ed., (2020). Cooperation among Competition Authorities in multijurisdictional filings should always be a factor to take into consideration. The ECA Notice is a mechanism through which European Competition Authorities cooperate with each other when reviewing transnational merger transactions. Although active for almost 20 years, the ECA Notice cooperation mechanism is hardly well-known among stakeholders, in particular merging parties. Nevertheless, the ECA Notice cooperation mechanism has proven to be an extremely useful tool in promoting consistency and avoiding conflicting assessments and final decisional outcomes in EU national merger control. This, however, is not short of challenges. This article intends to provide a brief insight on how cooperation in multijurisdictional filings of merger transactions works in practice, the principles it is based on, and its benefits and challenges to both National Competition Authorities and merging parties.
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