The Council adopted a regulation empowering the EEC Commission to control mergers at the end of 1989. Nevertheless, it is most useful to have this well researched and readable analysis of merger control in the Common Market. Seven firms of lawyers practising from different Member States and working from No. 1 Avenue de la Joyeuse Entrée in Brussels have analysed their national legislation and provided English translations of it as it has been most recently amended. Not only is the legislation analysed; the way that it works in practice is described. The chapter on the United Kingdom, for instance, is excellent. The legislation is complex but analysed accurately and elegantly, and the practice of the OFT in making references, and of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission in assessing them is described. The chapters on Germany and France are also of particular importance—French law has been tightened up recently—but it is very useful to have in a single volume the laws of the other countries too. The cut-off date was November 1987, four months before the book was published. In those jurisdictions where there is substantial case law on merger control, including the EEC, cases are cited.

The authors collaborated to write the chapter on the EEC. The history of the Commission’s views is explained with unusual thoroughness and its informal decisions under Art. 86 are analysed. The views of the members of the Commission responsible for competition policy, and those of some of their officials in the Legal Service and Competition Department are also cited. The Philip Morris case, which was decided just as the book was going to press, is described in depth and detail. The authors suggest that a contract for the acquisition of all the shares and not merely a minority, leading to control over a competitor, may be subject to Art. 85. The draft of the regulation, which is also well and lucidly analysed, is not the one currently being negotiated, but most of the provisions are the same, although some of the most important provisions politically speaking have been changed, and the thresholds of turnover increased. The authors contemplate a second edition if the EEC merger regulation is adopted.

The work demonstrates the extent to which firms of commercial lawyers from different Member States now collaborate. Those responsible for the book are among the avant-garde and are not in partnership, but collaboration in the single market must be expected to increase.

The work is the best I have seen on the topic; competent, thorough, lucid and tightly written. I very much look forward to the second edition, which is expected by November 1990. Although the form to be used for notification and the guidelines are unlikely to be adopted until July of this year, it will not be a carelessly written quickie by a young beginner establishing his reputation. The authors’ work is closely affected by the legislation and they have long pondered its various drafts.