Relevant legislation and statutory standards

The Control of Concentrations Regulations (the “Regulations”) were amended on 13 March 2007 by the Control of Concentrations (Amendment) Regulations 2007 (the “Amending Regulations”). The latter regulations modified the notification threshold and the time-limit for notification of merger operations, introduced a notification fee and formalised the procedure for third-party objections and deleted the guidelines attached to the Regulations in the Schedule, as will be described below.

Notification requirements and procedures

The notification threshold in the Regulations had often been criticised as casting the net too wide, thereby catching even concentrations with no effect or with an insignificant effect on the Maltese market. Caught by the notification requirement were all concentrations, including those concluded and implemented outside Malta, where at least one of the undertakings concerned had an aggregate turnover in Malta of Lm750,000 (equivalent to €1,747,035) in the preceding financial year. With a view to restricting the scope of the notification requirement, the Amending Regulations raised the turnover threshold to Lm1,000,000 (equivalent to €2,329,380). Moreover, for a concentration to be notifiable it is no longer sufficient for just one of the parties to the transaction to have a turnover in Malta but it is now necessary that all the undertakings concerned each have a presence in Malta through a sales turnover equivalent to 10% of the combined turnover of all the undertakings concerned.