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
Fifth Circuit Orders Google Antitrust Case Moved to California
Apr 7, 2026 by
CPI
Federal Appeals Court Sides With CFTC on Jurisdiction Over Prediction Markets
Apr 7, 2026 by
CPI
Wilson Sonsini Bolsters Hong Kong Office With New Antitrust Partner
Apr 7, 2026 by
CPI
IMF Highlights Risks From Tokenized Finance and Stablecoins in New Report
Apr 7, 2026 by
CPI
Senators Propose Bill to End Tax Breaks for Large Corporate Mergers
Apr 7, 2026 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Competitor Collaborations
Mar 26, 2026 by
CPI
Between Scylla and Charybdis – Navigating Transatlantic Antitrust Currents
Mar 26, 2026 by
Tilman Kuhn & Niklas Brüggemann
Cartel Enforcement Moves Into the Labor Market: Trends and Implications
Mar 26, 2026 by
Andreas Kafetzopoulos & Caroline Janssens
Rethinking Buy-Side Antitrust “Group Boycotts”
Mar 26, 2026 by
Craig Falls & Brendan McGuire
Positive Collaborations: The Tools Available to Competition Authorities to Encourage Beneficial Interactions Between Competitors
Mar 26, 2026 by
Rona Bar-Isaac & Thomas Withers