Closing the Efficiencies Gap

The assessment of efficiencies has been among the most contested topics in the review of the European Commission’s Merger Guidelines. Under the existing framework, efficiency claims have proved exceptionally difficult to sustain: the three-pronged test, requiring consumer benefit and pass-on, merger-specificity, and verifiability, has recognised only a narrow category of short-term variable cost savings, while more forward-looking, quality-based, or dynamic efficiencies have typically been dis