Should the Acquisition of Non-controlling Minority Shareholdings be Treated as Concentrations?

摘要

The answer to the question about how to treat the acquisition of minority shareholdings necessitates a weighing of interests: on the one hand, excessive burdens should not be imposed on business, especially bearing in mind that a considerable amount of such transactions constitute merely a passive investment without any interest in the target company's policy. On the other hand, the market should be protected from possible anticompetitive effects arising from acquisitions of minority shareholdings, especially in competitors or vertically related companies. The Commission's proposal in the White Paper succeeds in this weighing of interests. The restriction of the obligation to notify transactions between competitors or vertically related companies ('targeted') enables the Commission to focus on the actually problematic situations that raise prima facie anticompetitive concerns. It also spares the investors pursuing mere financial interests the costs and time of a notification with no obvious anticompetitive effects. However, some adjustments to the White Paper's current proposal concerning the standstill and the limitation period need to be carried out.