Amendments to the thresholds of the Finnish merger control

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Substantial amendments to the Finnish Act on Competition Restrictions came into force on 1 May 2004. These amendments have affected both the procedural rules and the substantial provisions of the Act and have altered the criteria for the obligation to notify a concentration to the Finnish Competition Authority. According to the bill, a concentration must be notified to the Finnish Competition Authority if:lthe combined world-wide turnover of the undertakings concerned exceeds E350mlthe turnover of each of at least two of the undertakings concerned accrued from Finland exceeds E20m. The old law only required consideration of the parties' global turnover when determining whether or not there is an obligation to notify. Thus the second new criterion has changed the notification requirements substantially. The Act has also introduced other major changes. Previously, Finnish law required that the object of an acquisition, a merging entity or a joint venture to be established conducts business in Finland, ie maintains a subsidiary, a branch office or an employee in Finland. This criterion has been abolished under the new Act and hereon no physical presence in the Finnish market is required. The old law also required that the turnover of the target company included the turnovers of all companies operating within the same industry (not just on the same relevant market) in Finland where the acquirer has, during preceding two years, acquired control. The new Act has abandoned this special Finnish two-year rule.