Bruno Lasserre - Merger Control Regimes Worldwide 2014

Concurrences Journal & Paul Hastings

The theme of this second annual global mergers conference focused on the recent proliferation of merger control regulation and enforcers, which leads to the inevitable question of whether, in this new regulatory environment, mergers and acquisitions have been made subject to undue obstacles when measured on a worldwide scale. Indeed, of more that 200 sovereign states in the world, some 125 now apply merger control rules to transactions meeting thresholds of various intensity.

As the European Wall Street Journal reported recently: “One of the big challenges for companies is to figure out which nations can claim authority over their deal, a complicated endeavor because country guidelines are, literally and figuratively, all over the map – depending on the size of the deal, the size of the companies and the amount of commerce connected to a given jurisdiction.” (From Africa to Ukraine: Antitrust Cops, October 1, 2014).

In response, Concurrences Journal and Paul Hasting’s Global Competition Practice Group organized a morning briefing seminar, during which competition / antitrust partners from Paris, Brussels, Washington DC and Palo Alto offices confronted their views with panelists involved in merger control from various horizons, on a worldwide scale.

This event was organized by the Institute of Competition Law, publisher of Concurrences Journal, in partnership with Paul Hastings.