Of balance in mergers: the judgment of the Court of Justice in case C-376/20 P Commission v CK telecoms

Abstract

The judgment of the Court of Justice in CK telecoms is a seminal decision by which the Court reaffirmed and developed its earlier case-law on mergers under a new systematic framework, whose cornerstone is balance: the balance set by the Merger Regulation establishing a principle of neutrality between compatibility and incompatibility of any concentration with the internal market; the balance of probabilities that informs the standard of proof; the balance between the burden carried by the enforcer and that of the notifying parties on efficiencies; and the institutional balance between the Commission appraising concentrations and EU Courts carrying out judicial review.