Margrethe Vestager – Photo © European Union 2017
(BRUSSELS) – The European Commission sent three separate Statements of Objections to Merck and Sigma-Aldrich, General Electric and Canon Thursday alleging they breached EU merger rules.
The EU executive says General Electric, and Merck and Sigma-Aldrich did so by providing incorrect or misleading information, and Canon by implementing a merger before notification and clearance.
The current investigations are limited to the assessment of breaches of the EU merger procedural rules and will not have an impact on the Commission decisions approving the three mergers, which will remain effective.
“We need companies to work with us to ensure fast and predictable merger control, to the benefit of both companies and consumers,” said the Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager: “But we can only do our job well if we can rely on cooperation from the companies concerned they must obtain our approval before they implement their transactions and the information they supply us must be correct and complete.”
EU merger rules require that merging companies notify transactions of Union dimension prior to their implementation and do not implement them until they have been notified to and cleared by the Commission.
The three Statements of Objections sent to Merck, General Electric and Canon relate to three separate cases concerning breaches of EU merger procedural rules.
The Commission has since 2010 dealt with an average of over 300 notifications per year. Over 95% of these cases are dealt within a preliminary ‘Phase I; investigation.
In May 2017, the Commission fined Facebook 110 million for providing incorrect or misleading information during the Commission’s 2014 investigation under the EU Merger Regulation of Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. But the decision had no impact on the EC’s October 2014 approval of the transaction under the EU Merger Regulation.
