EU Commission: Competition - 24/10/08

Mergers: Commission revises Remedies Notice and amends Merger Implementing Regulation
"The European Commission has revised its guidelines on remedies in merger control in order to ensure that competition concerns are dealt with more effectively and to clarify to companies involved in merger cases how best to address competition concerns. Remedies are modifications to a proposed transaction suggested by the parties involved with a view to eliminating possible competition concerns identified by the Commission. The main changes include the introduction of a form for submitting information on remedies, details on divestiture and access remedies and clarifications on the role of the Trustee. The Commission has also modernised the Remedies Notice in the light of the revised Merger Regulation (EC) No. 139/2004 (see MEMO/04/9), the Commission's experience in a large number of cases, the Commission Mergers Remedies Study (see IP/05/1327) and recent judgements of the European Courts. The Remedies Notice also takes into account comments received from the public consultation held in 2007 on a draft Notice (see IP/07/544). In addition, the Commission has adopted amendments to the Merger Implementing Regulation (Commission Regulation (EC) No. 802/2004) in line with the changes to the Remedies Notice." [Europa]

State aid: Commission consults on three year extension of film support criteria
"The European Commission has launched a public consultation on plans to extend the state aid assessment criteria of its Cinema Communication (see IP/01/1326) until 31 December 2012. Under the current criteria, state support for film production can be exempted from the EC Treaty's ban on state aid under certain conditions. In particular, such support must concern cultural films, while respecting certain thresholds regarding territorial requirements and aid intensity. Schemes must also comply with the EC Treaty rules and cannot focus on specific film-making activities. The Commission proposes to extend the validity of these criteria for three years and invites interested parties to submit their comments by 30 November 2008." [Europa]

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