The Finnish Consumer and Competition Authority ("FCCA") has published new guidance notices on the Finnish merger control procedure. The new notices replace the former Merger Control Guidelines, introduced in 2011. The former Guidelines could only be revised at once. Now the Guidelines have been replaced with guidance notices that consist of single instructions. Henceforth there is no need to revise the whole Guidelines in order to update a single instruction because the less formal guidance notices can be updated separately, providing flexibility to the updating process.
Over the past few years, merger control rules have been revised to reflect developments in decisional practice. Updating the guidance complements these changes. All notices, published on FCCA's website, aim to help companies to comply with the merger control requirements and process in Finland as well as assess possible ancillary restrictions (new guidance not yet published).
Some of the new notices are republications of the former Guidelines with some minor updates, but there is also completely new guidance regarding information requirements in the merger notification form (here, in Finnish) and guidance on the handling procedure at the FCCA (here, in Finnish).
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