Nicht kontrollierende Minderheitsbeteiligungen in der EU-Fusionskontrolle

With regard to the 2014’s Commission’s Whitebook, this thesis inquires into the question whether the scope of the EU Merger Regulation should be extended to also cover non controlling minority share acquisitions. Learning from international experiences (Germany, UK, USA), the need for as well as the structuring of such reform are the main research subjects. Regarding the first issue, several findings lead the author to doubting such a need. These include the scarce competitive significance of minority shareholdings, the limited extent of the alleged enforcement gap in EU Merger Control as well as the dubious efficiency enhancement in competition law enforcement, resulting from such reform. The Commission’s reform proposals are assessed in the light of legal certainty, proportionality and coherence with the existing merger control system in Europe. Concluding, alternative approaches to the identified problems are presented.