Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke has launched a public consultation on a proposal to raise the thresholds at which mergers and acquisitions must be notified to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
Under the current rules, mergers or acquisitions are required by the Competition Act 2002 to notify the CCPC if specified financial thresholds are reached in the most recent financial year.
The CCPC must then review the merger to assess whether it may have an adverse effect on competition in the sector or geographical area.
Under section 27(1) of the 2002 Act, the Minister has the power to raise the financial thresholds for mandatory notification of mergers by means of a Ministerial Order once per year. The thresholds were last raised in 2019.
"I am happy to open this public consultation in relation to the financial thresholds at which mergers and acquisitions must be notified to the CCPC. Raising the merger threshold allows the CCPC to focus its resources on high-value mergers which are more likely to have a detrimental effect on competition," Minister Burke said.
The consultation is now open and will close on May 1 this year.
