The Finnish government has recently addressed a legislative proposal to the Finnish Parliament regarding amending the Finnish Competition Act.
In the summer of 2021, the Finnish Consumer and Competition Authority ("FCCA") stated that according to their study, the current national turnover thresholds allow harmful mergers to escape the scrutiny of the authority. Following this, the Finnish Ministry for Economic Affairs and Employment proposed to lower the jurisdictional thresholds for the obligation to notify concentration in Finland. In our latest article, we introduced the new merger control thresholds specified in the proposal.
According to the final proposal, a concentration needs to be notified to the FCCA if:
a) the combined Finnish turnover of the parties involved exceeds EUR 100 million (instead of current combined worldwide turnover of EUR 350 million); and
b) each of at least two parties involved has a Finnish turnover exceeding EUR 10 million (instead of the current EUR 20 million threshold for domestic turnover).
The amendments shall take effect at the beginning of 2023.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.