Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2776 of 31 October 2024 correcting Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/914 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 802/2004

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, and in particular Article 57(2), point a in conjunction with Article 1 of Protocol 21 to that Agreement,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 of 20 January 2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (1), and in particular Article 23(1) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 is based on the principle of compulsory notification of concentrations before they are put into effect. Notification has important legal consequences which are favourable to the parties to the proposed concentration. However, failure to comply with the obligation to notify renders the parties liable to fines and may also entail civil law disadvantages for them. It is therefore necessary in the interests of legal certainty to define precisely the subject matter and content of the information to be provided in the notification.

(2) Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 allows the undertakings concerned to request, in a reasoned submission, prior to notification, that a concentration fulfilling the requirements of that Regulation be referred to the Commission by one or more Member States, or referred by the Commission to one or more Member States, as the case may be. It is important to provide the Commission and the competent authorities of the Member States concerned with sufficient information, in order to enable them to assess, within a short period of time, whether or not a referral ought to be made. To that end, the reasoned submission requesting the referral should contain certain specific information.

(3) In order to simplify and expedite examination of notifications, of reasoned submissions, and of the information regarding commitments, standardised forms should be used. Those forms are set out in the Annexes to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/914 (2). The format of the Annexes to this Regulation may change and the corresponding forms may be replaced by electronic forms containing the same information requirements.

(4) Several inaccuracies have been found in the notification forms contained in the Annexes to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/914. Considering the important effects of such forms, the inaccuracies should be corrected.

(5) The Annexes to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/914 should therefore be amended accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

The Annexes to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/914 are amended in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 31 October 2024.

For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN

(1) OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2004/139/oj (‘Regulation (EC) No 139/2004’ or ‘Merger Regulation’).

(2) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/914 of 20 April 2023 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 802/2004 (OJ L 119, 5.5.2023, p. 22, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2023/914/oj) (‘Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/914’).