Brussels-based White & Case partner Assimakis Komninos was quoted in a Financial Times article about the European Commission's reforms of EU competition policy. The reforms put greater emphasis on the benefits of corporate scale and urge competition officials to give greater weight to "innovation, investment and resilience of the internal market" when assessing mergers. However, there has been little consistency in how EU policymakers have described the implications of the reforms.
"We have seen a bad cop — good cop approach in how the guidelines are presented between [European Commission president Ursula] von der Leyen and [competition chief Teresa] RiberaRibera," said Komninos, adding that there is usually a "more nuanced unified message". Komninos said the ambiguity was already shaping legal advice to clients considering deals. The policy dispute "might lead merging parties to think that Ribera may not always have the majority for blocking a merger [within the Commission's college of commissioners]. This knowledge strengthens their hand."
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