Final joint guidance on new transaction value threshold published.

The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) and the Austrian Federal Competition Authority (FCA) have released a joint guidance paper (Guidance Paper) clarifying the application of their respective new thresholds for transactions. The release of the Guidance Paper on July 9, 2018 follows recent amendments to German and Austrian law. The 9th amendment to the German Act against Restraints of Competition (Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen, or GWB) and the Austrian Cartel and Competition Law Amendment Act 2017 (Kartellgesetz, or KartG), which became effective in June and April 2017, respectively, both introduced new provisions on merger control jurisdiction on the basis of a “size-of-transaction” test.