Essential Antitrust

Twelve months ago, Daniele Calisti, Head of Unit for Merger Policy and Case Support at the European Commission, joined us to discuss the launch of the Commission's public consultation on the revision of the EU Merger Guidelines. Now, with a draft text on the table, host Jenn Mellott welcomes him back — alongside economist David Foster of Frontier Economics and Brussels partner Thomas Janssens — to get the insider’s perspective on the most significant rewrite of EU merger control in over twenty years.

The conversation goes beyond the published text to explore the Commission's own thinking on the revamped efficiencies and "theory of benefit" framework, the new dynamic theories of harm, the differentiated evidential standard, resilience as a parameter of competition, and the Innovation Shield for acquisitions of small innovative companies. Whether you're a friend of the podcast or a new listener, you'll find everything you need in this episode to navigate the reform with confidence.

With the consultation closing on 26 June and the Commission already applying the new principles informally, this episode delivers the insight your deal team needs — directly from the source.

The European Commission's draft merger guidelines land at a moment of real geopolitical flux — and its changes cut both ways. Scale, resilience, innovation and supply chain security are now embedded in the competitive assessment as key factors, and a new "theory of benefit" framework enables parties to argue efficiencies in novel and more comprehensive ways. At the same time, the Commission has equipped itself with a significantly expanded enforcement toolkit — from entrenchment and dynamic foreclosure to labour market effects and minority shareholdings.

In this episode of the Essential Antitrust podcast, Freshfields partners Jenn Mellott, Andreas von Bonin and Paul van den Berg discuss what has actually changed in practice: how the new innovation shield works for start-up acquisitions, where the new theories of harm create risk that deal teams need to plan for from day one, and what the expanded efficiencies framework means for how you build and present your deal to the Commission.