Abstract

Over the course of a few months the Court of First Instance reversed three decisions taken by the European Commission which blocked three mergers (Airtours/ First Choice, Schneider/Lagrand, Tetra Laval/Sidel). These sentences are generally considered clear evidence of the poor economic analysis applied by the Commission. On the contrary, the cause of the Commission's failures can be traced back to the inadequacy of the standard for evaluating mergers (based on the notion of dominant position). Not surprisingly, immediately after the sentences, the Commission proposed a new evaluation standard closely resembling that used in the USA ("substantial lessening of competition").