In August 2025, the European Commission launched a review of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR).
EU Merger Guidelines Consultation – Our Views on Assessing Market Power
As part of our response to the European Commission’s consultation on possible reforms to its merger guidelines,[1] we provided our views on Topic Paper B – Assessing Market Power.
The European Commission Launches Wide-Ranging Review of EU Merger Guidelines
On May 8, 2025, the European Commission (the “EC”) launched a public consultation on the EU Merger Guidelines (together, the “Guidelines”), which describe the framework applied by the EC to assess the competitive impact of horizontal and non-horizontal mergers (the “Consultation”).[1] The Consultation responds to the Draghi Report’s call for “more forward-looking and agile” EU merger control that takes greater account of innovation and future competition in assessing mergers.[2]
The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation: 2024 in Review and Predictions for 2025
In 2024, the FSR’s first year in operation saw a large number of filings but limited enforcement, with only a handful of Phase 2 reviews, one conditional merger clearance and two ex officio cases. With the FSR now up and running, in 2025, we expect the EC’s focus to be on demonstrating the FSR’s value and delivering practical results by stepping up enforcement, building a corpus of reasoned decisions, and – it is hoped – developing a more streamlined process for non-issue cases.