ANTITRUST | The European Court of Justice clarified the scope of application of Article 22 EUMR on the referral mechanism for below-threshold concentrations

On 3 September 2024, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) issued its judgment (“Judgment”) on joined Cases C- 611/22 P and C 625/22 P, Illumina/Grail v Commission. With the Judgment, the ECJ clarified the scope of application of Article 22 of Regulation 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (“EUMR”). In line with the Advocate General’s opinion, the ECJ set aside the judgment of the General Court of the European Union of 13 July 2022 and annulled the decision by which the European Commission had accepted the request – submitted by the Authorities of several Member States – to examine Illumina Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Grail LLP under Article 22 of the EUMR. According to the ECJ, the EC cannot raise or accept the referral to it of merger projects that do not have a European dimension by national competition Authorities, where the latter were not competent to analyse those projects by virtue of their national rules.

Newsletter n. 99 – August/September 2024