CONCENTRATIONS IN DIGITAL SECTOR - A NEW EU ANTITRUST STANDARD FOR “KILLER ACQUISITIONS” NEEDED?

Digital technologies are one of the most important factors driving the current EU to revise its competition rules, inter alia in an area as sensitive to corporate strategies as mergers and acquisitions. The European Commission and a number of indepen-dent experts have already identified several key problems that the online environment raises for the application of traditional merger control institutes. Among them the takeovers of promising start-ups, that have already attracted millions of users to their freely distributed application, by some of the major online world players. They are sometimes referred to as “killer acquisitions” and they could even not to come under the authority of the European Commission because the EU Merger Regulation turnover criteria are not achieved. Should other criteria be chosen, or would such take-overs rather be controlled ex-post and under the risk of a de-concentration be ing ordered? The Commission is coming up with the first outlines of an answer. Its search for a response to these merger control challenges should be closely monitored by corporate practice, as it will set future boundaries for corporate strategies in the markets of tomorrow. The paper tries to structure the main challenges and possible EU law answers to the issue to predict what undertakings must be ready for when contemplating their future strategies for European markets.