Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

Under Section 9(1), a decision as to the compatibility of a concentration must be taken within 6 weeks from the receipt of a valid notification. This period is extended to two months where, after the notification of the concentration and not later than the end of the fifth week following receipt of the notification, the undertaking(s) concerned submit commitments alleviating the anticompetitive na …

Proceedings before the Director General of the Office for Competition

Since the Legal Notice 349 of 2011, concentrations meeting the thresholds must be notified to the Director General of the Office for Competition prior to their implementation and within 15 days after the conclusion of the agreement or the announcement of the public bid, or acquisition of a controlling interest (Section 5(1) of the Merger Regulation).

Pursuant to Section 5(2) of the Merger Regulation, a concentration must be notified by “the person or undertaking acquiring control of all or parts of one or more undertakings, but where it consists of a merger or the acquisition of joint control it shall be notified jointly by the parties to the merger or by those acquiring joint control.”

The notification is then published by the Director General in the Government Gazette and in local newspapers. 

Under Section 7(1) of the Merger Regulation, a concentration shall in principle not be put into effect before its notification and until it has been declared lawful. However, the regulation does not prohibit the implementation of a public bid which has been notified to the Director General provided that the acquirer does not exercise the voting rights attached to the securities in question or does so only to maintain the full value of those investments and on the basis of a derogation granted by the Director General. In addition, pursuant to Section 7(3), the Director General may grant a derogation from the obligation to suspend the concentration.

Merger notification

Under Section 9(1), a decision as to the compatibility of a concentration must be taken within 6 weeks from the receipt of a valid notification. This period is extended to two months where, after the notification of the concentration and not later than the end of the fifth week following receipt of the notification, the undertaking(s) concerned submit commitments alleviating the anticompetitive nature of the operation.

Where the Director General concludes that the notified concentration does not fall within the scope of the regulation, that finding must be recorded by means of a decision. Where he finds that the notified concentration, although falling within the scope of the regulation, does not raise serious doubts about its lawfulness, he must declare it to be a lawful concentration and such a declaration will cover restrictions directly related and necessary to the implementation of the concentration. Finally, where the Director General finds that the notified concentration falls within the scope of the regulation and raises serious doubts as to its lawfulness, he will initiate proceedings. 

A simplified merger control procedure shall apply to categories of concentrations that are deemed not to raise serious doubts as to their legality in terms of the provisions of the Merger Regulation.

Pursuant to Section 12 of the Merger Regulation, provision is made for a simplified procedure where:

- “two or more undertakings acquire joint control of a joint venture, provided that the joint venture has no, or negligible, actual or foreseen activities, within the territory of Malta because the turnover of the joint venture and/or the turnover of the contributed activities is less than EUR 698,812.02 in the territory of Malta and the total value of assets transferred to the joint venture is less than EUR 698,812.02 in the territory of Malta”.

- “two or more undertakings merge, or one or more undertakings acquire sole or joint control of another undertaking, provided that none of the parties to the concentration are engaged in business activities in the same product and geographical market, or in a product market which is upstream or downstream of a product market in which any other party to the concentration is engaged”;

- “two or more undertakings merge, or one or more undertakings acquire sole or joint control of another undertaking and two or more of the parties to the concentration are engaged in business activities either in the same product and geographical market and their combined market share is less than 15% or in a product market which is upstream or downstream of a product market in which any other party to the concentration is engaged and their combined market share is less than 25%”.

Where the Director General of the Office for Competition considers a concentration to come within one of the three cases listed above, he is required to “issue a short-form decision declaring the concentration lawful in terms of the provisions of these regulations within four weeks from the date of notification” (Section 12(4)).

Global Competition Law

536. Proceedings before the Director General of the Office for Competition

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Les notions juridiques connexes

536. Proceedings before the Director General of the Office for Competition

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise