News Story: M&A/EU

On 10 July 2023, the European Commission announced that it has adopted the Implementing Regulation for the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (EU) No. 2022/2560 (FSR) (Commission Press Release). The FSR entered into force on 12 January 2023 and will start to apply from 12 July 2023. The Implementing Regulation will enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

The FSR empowers the Commission to investigate foreign subsidies that may be distorting competition in EU markets and introduces new obligations (effective from 12 October 2023) to notify the Commission of M&A transactions and public procurement contracts involving parties that have received financial contributions meeting specified thresholds from non-EU states. For an overview of the regime, see FC Overview 4 July 2023.

The Implementing Regulation sets out the detailed procedural rules for the new regime, as well as the relevant notification forms. It was published in draft for consultation on 6 February 2023 (see FC Feature 6 February 2023) and the final version takes into account respondents' requests to limit the administrative burden related to notifications.

The detailed rules contained in the Implementing Regulation cover various aspects of the FSR, including:

• procedures for notifying mergers and acquisitions and public procurement contracts above certain thresholds to the Commission, including standardised notification forms;
• rules on preliminary reviews and in-depth investigations by the Commission;
• submission of commitments to remedy potential distortions; and
• use of confidential information submitted to the Commission, access to official files and the calculation of time limits.

Want to view more content like this?  Or view the previous features?  Sign up for a Free Trial to our service.