Council Regulation no. 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings in the European Union Cover Image

Уредба Савета бр. 139/2004 о надзору концентрација између предузећа у Европској унији
Council Regulation no. 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings in the European Union

Author(s): Slobodan Zečević
Subject(s): EU-Legislation
Published by: Институт за међународну политику и привреду
Keywords: European Union;concentration between undertaking;taking control;merger;control;competition;common market;Court of Justice

Summary/Abstract: Increasing the size of an undertaking, which is achieved by merger of several of them of by taking control on the part of one or more undertakings over others, is the operation that is called “concentration between undertakings“ in market economy. Control over concentrations had not been provided by the Treaty Establishing the European Economy Community adopted in 1957. However, in the early 1970s the operations mentioned above proved to be a threat to competition in the common market. Since no norms on control over concentration between undertakings were provided a new dilemma emerged – whether under such circumstances the implementation of general norms on competition protection that had been included in former Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community was possible. In that sense, some theoretical discussions were raised, this including legal practice of the Court of Justice on the adjustment of general norms on competition of the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community for the implementation of concentration operations. Finally, in accordance with the Council Regulation No. 4064/89 of 21 December 1989 control of the European Economic Community over operations of concentrations between undertakings had been introduced. This provision was then amended in June 1997. The regime of concentration between undertakings in the European Union was last reformed by the Council Regulation No. 139/2004 of 20 January 2004. Among other things the reform included the following: change of the criteria for the assessment of the adjustment of operation of concentration among undertaking to the internal market, making simpler forwarding of cases on the part of the Commission to member states national bodies that are in charge of protection of competition, and vice versa, rationalisation of the control procedure and strengthening of investigation powers of the Commission.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 39-40
  • Page Range: 151-169
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Serbian