Revision of the EU Merger Guidelines : France Digitale’s contribution to the European Commission consultation
France Digitale welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to revise the EU Merger Guidelines as a key step to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness. Representing startups and investors, the organization highlights the need for a modern competition framework to sustain innovation and growth. The current guidelines, dating back to 2004 and 2008, no longer reflect today’s market realities or recent case law. France Digitale calls for stronger integration of innovation impacts in merger assessments. It will continue to provide recommendations and support throughout the revision process.
France Digitale welcomes the European Commissions initiative to revise the EU Merger Guidelines and views it as an important step toward ensuring that Europe remains a strong and competitive player in the global market. As a non-profit organization representing French and European startups and venture capitalists, France Digitale is committed to fostering a vibrant and innovative ecosystem of startups and scaleups across Europe.
The organization recognizes the importance of the EU’s Startup and Scaleup Strategy, as outlined by the Commission, but stresses that these efforts will only be effective if they are supported by a competition framework that is both modern and capable of sustaining innovation and growth. The EU Merger Guidelines, adopted in 2004 for horizontal mergers and in 2008 for non-horizontal mergers, have not been significantly updated to reflect the profound changes that markets have undergone in the years since. Additionally, the evolving case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union further underscores the need for a comprehensive revision. France Digitale believes it is essential for the revised Guidelines to incorporate these developments and provide competition authorities with the tools they need to assess mergers in the context of todays rapidly changing market realities. While the current Guidelines acknowledge that innovation plays a key role in competition, they do not offer detailed guidance on how the Commission should evaluate the effects of mergers on innovation.
With this contribution to the consultation on the revision of the Merger Guidelines, France Digitale aims to foster a better understanding of how M&A and innovation are deeply intertwined, and to put forward recommendations for a new framework that fully integrates innovation considerations into merger review. We will continue to engage with our members on this issue and to document both the potential positive and negative effects of mergers on innovation. France Digitale remains at the Commissions disposal throughout this revision process.