Merger Notification Thresholds

The fact that the 93 per cent of the merger reviews that were pre-assessed by the ACCC were able to proceed without conditions indicates the existing framework is working. [...] Its effect would be to needlessly increase the influence of government, compounding the regulatory / administrative burden to the detriment of business, without a clear benefit to the community. [...] In setting the thresholds at the medium-sized business level, the consultation paper implies the thresholds were chosen simply to maintain the number of mergers notifications received by the ACCC each year at a similar level (300-500) to that assessed under the current voluntary notification regime. [...] Market Concentration Thresholds The market concentration threshold for Limb 1 sets the combined market share of the merged parties to be at least 25 per cent and the combined turnover of two of the merger partis of at least $20 million. [...] What is not clear is the problem that the government is trying to fix with the merger reforms, other than to increase the influence of government in a merger by adding to the complexity and compounding the compliance burden on businesses seeking to merge.