The International Competition Network Merger Working Group: Focus on Implementation

CPI ICN Column edited by Maria Coppola (U.S. Federal Trade Commission)

The International Competition Network Merger Working Group: Focus on Implementation – Bob Schlossberg (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer)

(Click here for a PDF version of the article.)

The International Competition Network (“ICN”) has been rightly heralded as a success story. In twelve short years, this “virtual” organization has promoted a level of international dialog and cooperation that few could have imagined. One of the ICN’s early successes, and maybe to this day the best example of what such an organization can achieve, is its Recommended Practices for Merger Notification and Review Procedures (September 2002, as supplemented and amended). This 37-page document articulates well-recognized principles for sensible administration of merger review.

The ICN, through its Merger Working Group, has supplemented these RPs with such work product as Setting Notification Thresholds (April 2008); Defining Merger Transactions (May 2007); and Merger Notification Information Requirements (June 2009).

Valuable as these pieces have been, over the past few years, it has become increasingly evident that the ICN MWG should devote increased attention to implementation: although recommended practices are just that – recommended – surely more could be done to see whether and how countries not following the practices might be able to more closely align their merger review scheme with the RPs.