Judicial Review of the Merger Decisions of the European Commission

Abstract

Decisions of the European Commission which prohibit mergers are significant interventions in the private autonomy of the affected businesses. Therefore, the right of the parties to initiate judicial review of such decisions is of special importance. By reviewing the Court’s decisions delivered in such cases, we can see that the Court forces the European Commission to deliver only wellestablished decisions based on correct legal and factual backgrounds, and to rescind putting obligations on the parties other than those which are inevitable for maintaining the competition. Procedures must be fully transparent, procedural guarantees as the right of defence may only be limited in exceptional cases, and both the Commission and the businesses under investigation are required to actively cooperate with each other.