Originally Posted by
racedo
Uk company doing business in another member state where has a tiny market share can find itself being subject to that countrys takeover rules based on what UK CC are doing on precedence. Does City of London really want to find taleovers orchestrated by it held up because Estonia Govt body wishes to have an input?
You'll know that the evaluation of many of these merger/takeover/antitrust cases hinges on the definition of the relevant market.
You refer to "a tiny market share". You'll also know that the UKCC has defined the relevant market, not as "all routes from the UK", but as "routes between Britain and Ireland". Section 4.47 of the
UKCC final report says that in 2012 Ryanair had 49.9% of that market and Aer Lingus 31.7%. Tiny? Really?
The AA/US takeover, now stalled, involves 2 US airlines who generate most of their ASKs domestically. It still needed separate EC approval (and a commitment to divest an LHR slot pair) because of the potential impact on competition on particular transatlantic routes (the EC considered the "relevant market" to be routes between the EC and the US). That's not a remedy that the US DOJ would have asked for since its focus is on domestic US competition. In the AA/US case, should the EC therefore not have had the right to impose conditions or remedies on a takeover which would affect it?