Title: Merger enforcement: law and statistical evidence worldwide

Authors: Panagiotis N. Fotis

Addresses: General Directorate of Competition, Hellenic Competition Commission, P. Ioakim 5, 121 32, Athens, Greece; Department of Regional Economic Development, University of Central Greece, Levadia, Greece

Abstract: The introduction of the new Greek Competition Act (L. 3959/2011) sets out strict deadlines as to the approval or prohibition of notified concentrations. The aim of this paper is to elaborate the main principles covering Merger Law as applicable in Greece and to provide statistical evidences of merger enforcement worldwide. It also offers some valuable thoughts concerning the experts required so as to assess the performance of Hellenic Competition Commission at regular intervals. The statistical evidence of merger enforcement worldwide indicate that from 1995 to 2010, Europe constitutes the 44.32% of the total transaction value among the top ten mergers worldwide, while the geographical area of the North America constitutes the remaining 55.68%. In Greece, the Hellenic Competition Commission has cleared 335 Phase I and Phase II decisions from 1995 until March 2011. Retail trade, and financial services activities (especially central banking activities), constitute the major sectors of merger activity.

Keywords: Hellenic Competition Commission; HCC; Greek Competition Act 3959/11; Merger Law; merger notification procedure; European Community Merger Regulation; ECMR; dominance test; merger appraisal; Significant Impediment of Effective Competition text; SIEC test; merger statistics worldwide; merger enforcement; retailing; financial services; Greece.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2013.052483

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2013 Vol.5 No.3, pp.272 - 285

Published online: 30 Dec 2013 *

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