While the European Commission’s highly visible antitrust and cartel investigations arguably dominated the headlines during the past 12 months, the EU’s merger control regime, even without a single prohibition decision, still produced a number of important precedents as well as a procedural reform relevant to deal-makers active in the European Union.

On the legislative front, the Commission issued measures to alleviate the regulatory burden on businesses in unproblematic mergers, while its original proposal to extend the scope of the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR) to the acquisition of certain minority shareholdings below the change-of-control threshold was pushed into the long grass.

Originally published in The Mergers & Acquisitions Review - 2014, Eighth Edition.