EU: GE, Canon, Merck in post-merger spotlight

The European Union’s antitrust watchdog accused General Electric, Japan’s Canon as well as German pharmaceuticals group Merck KGaA and Sigma-Aldrich of breaching the bloc’s merger rules.

The moves come as the EU is trying to drive home to companies the urgent need to submit accurate and truthful information when registering a deal for antitrust review with Brussels. The EU’s competition chief told The Wall Street Journal in March that her department is reviewing a handful of recent merger clearances on suspicions companies misled investigators in securing approval.

The EU said General Electric may have misled regulators when the EU was reviewing its US$1.65 billion deal with LM Wind Power, while Merck may have done so with its US$17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich, a US supplier of laboratory testing materials.

Japan’s Canon may have violated rules by implementing its deal with Toshiba Medical Systems before registering the acquisition with the EU, the regulator said.

The EU’s clearances for all three deals remain valid, the EU said. But if in its formal investigations the regulator finds the companies did in fact provide incorrect or misleading information, the companies can be fined up to 1% of global revenue. In Canon’s case, if the EU finds the company jumped the gun implementing the merger, it could be fined as high as 10% of global revenue.

“We can only do our job well if we can rely on cooperation from the companies concerned – they must obtain our approval before they implement their transactions and the information they supply us must be correct and complete,” said EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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