Following a public consultation process Ireland's merger control thresholds are set to increase.
From 1 January 2019, the new thresholds for mergers and acquisitions which will require compulsory notification will be as follows:
- the aggregate turnover in the Republic of Ireland of all the undertakings involved is not less than €60m (up from €50m), and
- the turnover in the Republic of Ireland of each of 2 or more of the undertakings involved is not less than €10m (up from €3m)
These welcome changes arise out of a public consultation process carried out by the Department of Business, Enterprise andInnovation that recognised:
- the marked increase in notifications to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) since the introduction of the current thresholds in November 2014 (a 75% increase to December 2017)
- the current thresholds were resulting in a large number of transactions which had (i) a limited connection to Ireland or (ii) had no substantial effect on competition
- the burden on businesses in making the notifications.
The increase in merger thresholds is good news for the Irish M&A market and will reduce deal execution risk and costs for parties who come under the revised thresholds.
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