In May 2025, the European Commission launched a wide-ranging consultation on the forthcoming review of the EU merger guidelines (both horizontal and non-horizontal). The consultation included a general questionnaire as well as seven separate questionnaires covering specific topics, such as innovation and efficiencies. The consultation came at a time of broader reflections on European competitiveness.
RBB has submitted a detailed response to the consultation. We consider that competition policy should continue to be squarely grounded in a consumer welfare standard, appropriately defined. At the same time, we consider that the way this standard has been applied may have become too narrow. A broader, more forward-looking interpretation of consumer welfare may be warranted, one that places due weight on dynamic efficiencies and long-term productivity gains.
Mergers are one of the key mechanisms through which market economies reallocate resources and adapt to technological and structural shifts, generally to the benefit of consumers. Regulatory intervention should therefore remain limited to cases where there is a coherent, well-substantiated theory of harm that identifies a significant impediment to effective competition.
We support a merger control regime that remains based on economic evidence, focused on competitive effects, and adaptable to evolving market realities. In our view, the current horizontal and non-horizontal merger guidelines provide a sound framework for such assessments. Rather than a wholesale overhaul of this framework, we propose targeted modifications and clarifications aimed at ensuring that merger control in Europe continues to work to the benefit of consumers.
We consider that the revised merger guidelines should:
reflect all the ways in which mergers can benefit consumers;
avoid relying on structural presumptions to establish a significant impediment to effective competition (including when assessing innovation);
reconfirm the critical role of evidence and ensure a balanced treatment of inculpatory and exculpatory factors;
use a distinct framework for horizontal and non-horizontal mergers;
provide guidance on how digital settings can be assessed within the existing analytical frameworks; and
leave objectives unrelated to competition to alternative policy tools.
Over the last 20 years, the EU merger guidelines have provided a valuable steer for European merger control, firmly rooted in economic principles. The revised guidelines should aim to succeed in equal measure.
