Brussels poised to dilute merger veto under new court proposals

Mario Monti, the European Commissioner for Competition is reported to be considering a separate competition court or a competition chamber inside the European Court of Justice to vet European Commission decisions in months rather than years. The measure is an indication of the crisis in European competition policy following three rulings by the European Court of First Instance, to quash Commission vetoes on mergers. In the latest example, the European Court of First Instance issued two judgments on 25 October 2002, the first annulling a European Commission decision prohibiting the merger between the packaging groups Tetra Laval and Sidel, and the second annulling a related decision of the Commission ordering the separation of the two companies.

http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp02/aff/cp0287en.htm http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp02/aff/cp0287en.htm

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