Mergers, Extraterritorial Jurisdiction and Convergence of EU and US Law

Abstract

Competition law is structured with the objective of attaining consumer welfare maximization and the efficiency of the market. This is to achieve a perfectly competitive market with concentrations on price, quality, and innovation of products and services. The legislative practice of the EU is aimed at harmonization and it can be compared to the US, which was the first country to establish the ‘effects doctrine’ involving foreign companies. The benefits and problems of extraterritorial assertion of jurisdiction on merger cases needs to be demonstrated in a global market because the mergers extend the anti-competitive effects to other parts of the world, externally from where they originate. This article will identify the advantages and disadvantages of extraterritorial jurisdiction on merger control, and the convergence of US and EU approaches with the intention of setting out a framework to decrease the legal conflicts between antitrust regimes in order to avoid the costs of multiple notifications.