Competition authorities have considered innovation in their enforcement activities for a long time and in different stages of their proceedings. Merger review is the area where competition authorities have most frequently considered innovation. An empirical study by Kern, Dewenter and Kerber on all mergers challenged by the US antitrust agencies between 1995 and 2008 concluded that innovation concerns were relevant in one third of the cases.
Similarly, in the EU, a systematic content analysis by Schrepel has revealed that the European Court of Justice has considered innovation in merger review at least on 20 occasions since 1979, although using different parameters in each case. The recent Draghi Report has further underlined the importance of innovation in promoting the competitiveness of the EU economy. To emphasize the weight of innovation and future competition in merger reviews, the Report recommends introducing an innovation defence as a key element of a new approach to competition policy supporting a new Industrial Deal and for the updated guidelines to give clear indications to parties as to what evidence must be provided to demonstrate the merger’s impact on their ability and incentive to innovate.
As emphasised by President Von der Leyen in the Mission Letter sent in September 2024 to Commissioner Ribera Rodríguez, DG Competition is expected to review the 2004 Horizontal Merger Guidelines in the near future. The question is how the updated Guidelines may incorporate the recommendations of the Draghi Report in relation to innovation.
In his keynote speech, Emanuele Tarantino will discuss the role of innovation in EU merger control. Prof. Maria Alessandra Rossi will moderate the discussion.
This webinar opens the online course Merger Control: Recent Developments in Digital Markets, organised by the EUI Centre for a Digital Society. Course participants are automatically registered for the key-note speech. The keynote is also open to external participants.