Standard of Judicial Review of Merger Decisions Concerning Oligopolistic Markets

Abstract

This article analyses the way in which standard of judicial review of the European Commission’s (EC) decisions concerning oligopolistic markets was exercised by EU judiciary. In the recent years we could observe an increasing role played by the GC and the ECJ in shaping the legal framework in which mergers are assessed. In fact, the EU judiciary has not only extended the previously narrow scope of the original merger regulation but it has also contributed significantly towards increasing the legal certainty by elaborating a reliable set of legal criteria for the assessment of oligopolistic markets, which also reflected the economic theory. The EU judiciary has also very often acted as a ‘filter’ to the novel theories introduced in the EC decisions. All of the aforementioned developments would not be possible without the high standard of judicial review exercised by EU courts and ‘special judicial techniques’ used by them.