Does your business sell products in the EU? If so there are many issues dealing with pricing, competition, marketing, and acquisition or merger with other entities that you need to consider. EU fines can be huge compared to those in the United States. Once only need look at the fine for price fixing, market-sharing, or output limitation agreements to see the size of the fines. In the EU the fine for such activities is 25% of the sales price for any company engaged in these activities.
Porter Elliott in an article for the Magazine Business Law today wrote an article in the July/August 2007 issue titled More than an Ocean Separates Us: What You Might Not Know about EU Competition Law In the article he describes some of the issues relating to company acquisitions and EU Law. Some of the major issues are:
1. A merger in the US needs to also be analyzed under the EU rules.
2. Some mergers need to only be looked at at the UE level while others need approval by one or more authorities in Europe.
3. The notification process is more intensive than the dreaded Hart-Scott-Rodino filing.
4. Filings can easily exceed 100 pages excluding annexes.
5. The process will take several months at a minimum.
6. Some merger theories not accepted in the U.S. are accepted in Europe.
7. Dominate companies are held to a much higher standard.
8. Fines from the EU around the 500 Million Euro are not uncommon (750 Million dollars US)
9. Speed of action or reaction is important with EU actions.
10. Private damages and jail time are possible in Europe
11. NO ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE FOR IN-HOUSE COUNSEL.
The merger control rules of the EU are intended to prevent a merged business from exercising undue influence over market conditions that will affect prices or reduced consumer choice.
The rules EU differ from the UK and other countries. For the EU it is mandatory to notify the authorities of a qualifying merger in the EU, while in the UK notification is voluntary. We work with specialist in the EU and UK to assess whether a proposed merger transaction falls within the UK or EU merger control rules and can deal with the necessary submissions to the regulators to obtain approval.
In you are going through a merger or acquisition, make sure you have a Florida EU business lawyer who is familiar with UE Merger Regulations Law.
