{"id":27006,"date":"2026-05-13T14:19:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hjort.no\/?p=27006"},"modified":"2026-05-13T15:56:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:56:00","slug":"draft-eu-merger-control-guidelines-and-impact-on-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hjort.no\/en\/draft-eu-merger-control-guidelines-and-impact-on-norway\/","title":{"rendered":"Draft EU Merger Control Guidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While the substantive legal test for assessing concentrations remains unchanged, the draft acknowledges that market consolidation may, in some circumstances, also contribute positively to European competitiveness. The draft also reflects the emergence of digital markets and signals a greater willingness to consider efficiency arguments, especially with respect to innovation, sustainability, and resilience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">On 30 April, the European Commission published its new draft Merger Control Guidelines. The revised guidelines will in practice also be applied by the Norwegian Competition Authority\u2019s (NCA) under the Norwegian Competition Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-law"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Draft EU Merger Control Guidelines - Hjort<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore the updated draft guidelines on acquisitions and mergers. Learn how to evaluate transaction approval criteria and identify regulatory approval risks before deal closure.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hjort.no\/en\/draft-eu-merger-control-guidelines-and-impact-on-norway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Draft EU Merger Control Guidelines - Hjort\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Explore the updated draft guidelines on acquisitions and mergers. Learn how to evaluate transaction approval criteria and identify regulatory approval risks before deal closure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hjort.no\/en\/draft-eu-merger-control-guidelines-and-impact-on-norway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hjort\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-13T12:19:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-13T13:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hjort.no\/wp-content\/uploads\/U1-1-ret-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aisha Rana\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Aisha Rana\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hjort.no\\\/en\\\/draft-eu-merger-control-guidelines-and-impact-on-norway\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hjort.no\\\/en\\\/draft-eu-merger-control-guidelines-and-impact-on-norway\\\/\",\"name\":\"Draft EU Merger Control Guidelines - Hjort\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hjort.no\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hjort.no\\\/en\\\/draft-eu-merger-control-guidelines-and-impact-on-norway\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hjort.no\\\/en\\\/draft-eu-merger-control-guidelines-and-impact-on-norway\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hjort.no\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/U1-1-ret-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-13T12:19:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-13T13:56:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hjort.no\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/11564fff49d72268fab64b243298b7d5\"},\"description\":\"Explore the updated draft guidelines on acquisitions and mergers. 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