Muddle over mergers

Solicitors have called for a radical rethink in the methodology of the European Commission's merger task force after a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) last week.

The court annulled the commission's decision last year to block the merger between French electrical companies Schneider and Legrand.

It is the third merger decision from the commission's directorate-general for trade set aside by the ECJ.

Jane Whittaker, a competition partner at City firm Macfarlanes, said the directorate's decision-making process was unclear.

'We need to have clearer processes so that we can be certain what we're advising,' she said.

'The process and analysis have to be improved.'

Colleague Marc Israel, a senior assistant at Macfarlanes, said: 'With the commission on the back foot, this could be good news for companies which were thinking of doing deals which raise difficult competition issues, as there may now be more chance of getting them approved.'

English barrister Julian Joshua, a former deputy head of the commission's cartel unit and now a partner at US firm Howrey Simon Arnold & White's Brussels office, said: 'The preferred option for change among lawyers is for a fundamental review of the way in which the merger task force operates.'

Mr Israel added: 'To avoid prejudice, different teams within the directorate should be assigned to different phases of investigation.

It needs more resources.'

Mario Monti, the EU competition commissioner, recently announced plans to reform his directorate's merger decision process, including the establishment of a specialised competition court to allow for the speedier review of companies' appeals against merger vetoes.

Jeremy Fleming