Government to review mergers laws in wake of 2014 Act

The Government is due to begin seeking feedback on whether Ireland’s mergers laws are working, The Irish Times reports.

A change to the law three years ago meant takeovers involving businesses with a turnover of more than €3 million or more required the approval of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCP).

Prior to that, the regulator had only to be informed of deals involving businesses with turnovers greater than €40 million.

As a result of the change, the number of notified transactions rose dramatically.

The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation is now set to launch a consultation on the changes brought in by the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014.

The CCP investigates deals to determine whether they have an impact on competition and while it approves most deals it has also imposed conditions on a number of takeovers. Usually, this means selling a section of the merged business before the deals go ahead.

Solicitor Ronan Dunne, head of competition with the firm Philip Lee (pictured), said the legislation was helping the regulator scrutinise mergers.

“The remit of the CCP is to catch transactions that might have an effect on local markets, and it seems to be doing that,” he said.

But he added that the 2014 changes led to sales being notified to the commission and asked whether this was necessary.

He said: “That is the only area where we appear to be out of kilter with the rest of Europe.”

In addition, the government is seeking views on the length of time the commission takes to investigate transactions.