Aktualita
MERGERS: AMO SR has initiated an administrative proceedings due to possible infringements of law in relation to a merger in the area of assembly, maintenance and construction works
Content
On 7 October 2019 the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic, the Division of Concentrations, (hereafter "the Office") initiated the administrative proceedings against two undertakings in the matter of possible infringement of the Act on Protection of Competition (hereafter “the Act”) grounded in the failure to notify the merger before starting exercising rights and obligations arising from it and in the breach of the prohibition on exercising rights and obligations arising from the merger before its final approval by the Office. The possible infringement of the Act concerns the merger in the area of assembly, maintenance and construction works related to the construction and operation of line constructions and related technologies.
Merger control system is based on their notification to the Office before the undertakings start the so-called implementation, i. e. exercising rights and obligations arising from it. Only transactions attaining a certain economic power, expressed in the form of the turnover of the parties to the merger, fall under the control of the Office. Only in this way can the Office effectively assess the merger impacts on the market and on the consumers and thus decide in the given case if either it approves the merger or the transaction will reduce effective competition, in particular by creating or strengthening a dominant position.
Initiating the administrative proceedings does not mean that the parties to it have breached competition rules, nor does it prejudge the conclusions, which the Office will come to in its decision in the given matter.
Merger control system is based on their notification to the Office before the undertakings start the so-called implementation, i. e. exercising rights and obligations arising from it. Only transactions attaining a certain economic power, expressed in the form of the turnover of the parties to the merger, fall under the control of the Office. Only in this way can the Office effectively assess the merger impacts on the market and on the consumers and thus decide in the given case if either it approves the merger or the transaction will reduce effective competition, in particular by creating or strengthening a dominant position.
Initiating the administrative proceedings does not mean that the parties to it have breached competition rules, nor does it prejudge the conclusions, which the Office will come to in its decision in the given matter.