EU General Court Upholds Commission's Merger Notification Template
A General Court ruling in Booking/Etraveli leaves the Commission's streamlined merger filing form standing as the working EU clearance route — practical for counsel advising on transaction timing and filing strategy.
Mayer Brown reports that the EU General Court has upheld the European Commission's "new template" for merger control, in proceedings captioned Booking/Etraveli. The judgment text is not in the material available here, so the reasoning, the case reference, and whether the ruling distinguishes substantive jurisdiction from filing formality cannot be verified from this source; pull the operative part before relying on any detail.
What counsel should take from the headline is that the template survives as a procedural instrument. A streamlined notification format for qualifying transactions has been challenged as inconsistent with the EU merger regulation's filing requirements, and a General Court decision rejecting that challenge removes one obstacle to continued use. On the face of the title, the ruling went against the parties pressing the procedural objection, which also makes the form less likely to become a delaying tactic in clearance.
For clients: assume the shorter form remains the expected filing route where a transaction fits it, verify the current version and any annexes before filing, and watch for an appeal to the Court of Justice that could revive the argument. Dates, case number, and any appeal are not confirmed in the available evidence.