Common Ownership in Competition Policy
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01Dow/DuPont (2017). The European Commission found that a significant level of common shareholding among the large agrochemical companies provided indications that innovation competition in crop protection would be less intense than in an industry without common shareholding. The decision cites Azar, Schmalz and Tecu and Anton, Ederer, Giné and Schmalz, and a dedicated annex assesses the effects of common shareholding on market shares and concentration measures.
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02Bayer/Monsanto (2018). The Commission considered that, where common shareholding is present, concentration measures such as market shares or the HHI are likely to underestimate the level of concentration, and took common shareholding into account as an element of context in its assessment.
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03US Merger Guidelines (2023), Guideline 11. The US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission recognise that cross-ownership and common ownership can reduce competition by softening firms’ incentives to compete, even absent any specific anticompetitive act or intent.
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04Naspers/Just Eat Takeaway (2025). The Commission noted that ownership shares alone may not fully reflect effective influence, so a model based on them may understate how far a firm internalises its rival’s profits, citing Antón, Ederer, Giné and Schmalz (Journal of Political Economy, 2023).
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05EU draft Merger Guidelines (2026), paragraph 166. The European Commission may consider common ownership of the merging firms and their rivals as a contributing factor in assessing a loss of head-to-head competition, noting that market shares and concentration measures tend to underestimate a merger’s effects in such cases. The paragraph draws on the Commission’s Dow/DuPont decision (Annex 5). The draft was published for consultation and has not yet been adopted.
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