On The Regulation Of The Horizontal Merger Antitrust Review Of Physical Standards

As a basic aspect under the antitrust law system, control of concentration between the enterprises (Merger Control) has been under scrutiny by the antitrust authorities throughout the world. The antitrust review as the core content of Merger Control system has become more transparent and scientific along with the development of Mergers practice in the Europe and U.S.A. When conducting antitrust review, the substantive test is used to appraise the anti competition effect in a merger case so as to decide which measure be taken to control such merger (e.g. forbidding the merger, or other corrective measures such as spin-off).As the Chinese Merger Control System is far from perfect, this paper intends to analysis the substantive test used in the Europe and U.S.A from the following aspects so as to offer some beneficial implications to the construction of our own Merger Control legal system:The basic analysis of the substantive test and the relevant legislative trendThe application of the substantive test, such as the determination of relevant market, the calculation of market concentration extent and the recent hot topic of non-coordinative effect (unilateral effect).The efficiency defense and the failing firm defense for Merger ControlIt shall be noted that the above content (excluding unilateral effect) is also regulated in the newly issued Administrative Regulations in Merger of Domestic Enterprise by Foreign Investors ("New Merger Regulation"). So the paper will, based on the analysis of the above content, point out the disadvantages of the New Merger Regulation and offer a constructive suggestion.