One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Why the Draft Merger Guidelines Matter gor Europe’s Economy snd Its Democracies

Two civil society organizations assess the European Commission’s draft Merger Guidelines. Merger control exists to keep market power in check. The Commission’s draft Guidelines equip it to do that, then hand merging parties several new arguments for clearance, among them a favorable framing of scale, a theory of benefit and an innovation shield. The evidence the Commission itself commissioned does not make the case for any of them. One step forward, two steps back, at a moment when Europ