German Merger Control: A European Approach to Anticompetitive Takeovers

European free-market countries recently have begun to enact more laws regulating mergers and joint-ventures, with Germany at the forefront. In this article, Messrs. Belke and Braun intensively analyze the German merger control law, including the criteria that necessitate a report to the German Cartel Office, its application of the substantive merger control rules, and possible exceptions to an anti-merger ruling. They also explore the impact of the German law on international mergers and joint-ventures.

Finally, they discuss in detail the first two German Supreme Court decisions that construed the substantive rules and contrast them with similar American cases.