In February 2019 the European Commission blocked the planned acquisition of Alstom by Siemens as the merger would have harmed competition. Soon afterwards the economy ministers of Germany and France published a manifesto for a European industrial policy. They are calling for EU merger control to be relaxed, by allowing the approval of potentially anti-competitive mergers in individual cases to enable the creation of European champions. The idea is that this would help maintain European competitiveness in the face of competition from China and other nations. Numerous academics, competition experts and company associations were critical of this call to relax EU merger control since it would not solve the problems of European companies on international markets. The BWB took this opportunity to examine the impact on the economy of Europe and Austria if EU merger control were to be relaxed and politicised.
Featured News
New York Puts Businesses on Notice for Algorithmic Pricing
Mar 19, 2026 by
CPI
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Expands US Antitrust Team with New Partner Hire
Mar 19, 2026 by
CPI
Mexico Antitrust Authority Fines Oxygen Suppliers Over Exclusive Contracts
Mar 19, 2026 by
CPI
EU Cloud Group Pushes for Halt to Broadcom VMware Changes
Mar 19, 2026 by
CPI
Sen. Blackburn Releases Discussion Draft of Bill to Set Federal ‘Framework’ for AI Policy
Mar 19, 2026 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Data-Driven Competition
Mar 19, 2026 by
CPI
Data-Driven Competition: Implications For Enforcement and Merger Control
Mar 19, 2026 by
Alexandre de Corniere & Greg Taylor
From Tipping to Trustees: Why Data-Driven Markets Require Institutional Design, Not Optimization
Mar 19, 2026 by
Jens Prüfer & Paul de Bijl
Data Barriers to Entry: What We’ve Learned About Spotting Them and What We Still Don’t Know About Solutions
Mar 19, 2026 by
Bruno Carballa-Smichowski
When the Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good: Price Discrimination, Affordability, Precarity and Market Dynamism
Mar 19, 2026 by
Dan Ciuriak