On May 14, 2018, the competition authorities of Germany and Austria have published joint draft guidelines on the new transaction value merger thresholds for public consultation, see here.
Comments can be submitted by June 8, 2018. The draft concerns the new merger control thresholds introduced in 2017. These provide that a transaction may be notifiable if the value of the consideration for a transaction exceeds € 400 million in Germany or € 200 million in Austria, respectively, and the target has significant domestic activities, even if the other turnover-related thresholds are not met. The draft guidelines deal with interesting issues, such as determining the consideration value (including which point in time is relevant and how to determine the value in case of earn-out clauses or other conditional or future payments), when domestic activity is considered as significant, including in digital markets and concerning R&D activities, as well as other questions. Silke Heinz has published a blog on the draft guidelines on Kluwer Competition Law Blog, see here.
