Consultation on Merger Guidelines
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) is the statutory body responsible for enforcing and promoting compliance with competition, consumer protection and product safety law in Ireland.
Our vision is for open and competitive markets where consumers are protected and businesses actively compete. Under Part 3 of the Competition Act 2002, as amended (the Act), the CCPC is responsible for reviewing proposed mergers and acquisitions which are notified to us.
The CCPC has started a project to review and update the CCPC’s Guidelines for Merger Analysis (the Merger Guidelines) which were adopted by the CCPC in October 2014, the year of the CCPC’s establishment. The Merger Guidelines, which were adopted as a notice pursuant to section 10(1)(e) of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014, set out and elaborate on key elements of the CCPC’s merger review function, covering each of the areas of analysis the CCPC may undertake in order to establish whether or not a merger will lead to a substantial lessening of competition in any market for goods or services in the State (SLC).
The CCPC considers this project to be timely because:
- Ten years have passed since the publication of the existing guidelines.
- The CCPC has developed its practice and learned lessons in reviewing mergers.
- Several competition authorities in other jurisdictions have updated their guidelines recently.
- There have been significant developments and changes in markets and merger review practice, both in Ireland and internationally.
The output of this project will be new published guidelines for merger analysis.
Invitation for Input
We have published an Call for Input with questions and issues for comment and are inviting stakeholders to give their views. The paper gives an overview of the proposed purpose, objectives, and scope of the study, as well as setting out some questions for stakeholders. Submissions submitted via email to consultations@ccpc.ie.
This consultation is now open and will run from Tuesday 1 October 2024 until Tuesday 12 November 2024.
Confidentiality of Submissions
The CCPC will not publish the detailed responses received. However, a summary of the responses may be included in the final report, which will list all who participated and consented to be named as a respondent in the report. Please indicate in your response if you consent to the CCPC processing the information provided by you for the purpose of this consultation, including listing you as a participant in the final report.
The data we collect helps us to comply with our legal obligations and carry out our statutory functions and activities. The data we collect, the basis of processing and the purposes of processing are detailed in our General Privacy Notice. For further information, please see our General Privacy Notice.
