The Impact of the New Substantive Test in European Merger Control

"This paper addresses the issue of whether the new merger test has made any difference in the way the Commission evaluates the competitive effects of mergers. We approach this question by reviewing the main arguments of why the test was changed and discuss the anticipated impact. It is argued that the new test can be expected to increase both the accuracy and effectiveness of merger control in two ways: first, it may close a gap in enforcement, which may have led to under enforcement in the past; and secondly, it may add to clarity by eliminating ambiguities regarding the interpretation of the old test, which possibly led to overenforcement in some cases."