The substantial assessment criterion for mergers: a comparative study of EU and US law.

Summary The substantial assessment criterion for mergers should make it possible to authorize, prohibit or conditionally authorize transactions. In a comparative approach to the two laws, it is necessary to examine the very substance of the criterion, which requires an overall understanding of the way in which they are analyzed. The elements of control and their hierarchy within the review process must be identified. However, it is not enough to simply state the similarities and differences between the two criteria, not only because there is a significant convergence between the two laws, as evidenced by the adoption of the 2004 reform of Community law, but also because comparative law must provide a framework for analysis that not only goes beyond a simple comparison of the assessment criteria for mergers in the Union and the United States, but above all goes beyond the simple description necessary for the comparison to propose a global methodology for the substantive assessment of concentrations.