In a landmark ruling, the EU General Court (GC) has confirmed the European Commission (EC)’s decision to accept a referral request from several Member States for the assessment of gene-sequencing firm Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL, a company which uses gene sequencing to develop cancer screening tests. The ruling is a victory for the EC, endorsing its controversial new policy to accept Member State requests to review, under Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation, transactions which do not meet EU or national merger control thresholds.