Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: EU Merger Control and Climate Action: The Struggle for the Proper Framework
Author-Name: Jens-Uwe Franck
Author-Email:

Classification-JEL: K21, K32
Keywords: antitrust law, merger control, climate change, environmental sustainability

Abstract: The EU has set itself an ambitious agenda to tackle climate change. Competition policy,
including merger review, is called upon to play its part. Based on an analysis of the
Commission’s practice, this paper identifies the key framework issues for the consideration of
climate change concerns in merger control and the parameters for addressing them under
the EU Merger Regulation and in the light of the European Treaties. One focus is on the
implications of the differentiated allocation of regulatory powers. It is argued that a distinction
must be made between scenarios in which the climate change argument is used to justify
stricter or conceptually extended merger control and those in which it is argued that merger
control should need to be relaxed for climate change reasons. With regard to the first
scenario, shifts of a normative nature can be observed and are indeed called for, but these
take place within the consumer welfare paradigm and it remains the case that the protection
of competition is the sole overriding principle of the EU Merger Regulation. In contrast, in the
second scenario, merger-specific positive effects on climate concerns need to be considered
even if they are not captured by the consumer welfare paradigm.

Note: 
Length: 30
Creation-Date: 2024-07
Revision-Date: 
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp576
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2024_576