We would like to present you the report on merger control proceedings in Poland in 2019. The study was prepared by the experts of Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak: Krzysztof Kanton, Dr. Jarosław Łukawski and Szymon Murek.
Full content of the report is available in the PDF.
For several years now, the number of concentrations notified to the President of the Polish Competition Authority (“UOKiK”) has been rising steadily, with 2019 being no exception. Over the previous 12 months, UOKiK initiated 278 merger control proceedings and issued 267 decisions.
In 2019, as in 2018, UOKiK has not issued any decisions that would prohibit an intended concentration. Likewise, we have recorded no withdrawals of notifications for clearance following receipt by the parties of UOKiK’s statement of objections to the respective proposed concentration. In 4 cases, UOKiK raised objections to the planned mergers. However, eventually, they were all given conditional clearance decisions, one of them being issued in 2020. In 1 case, UOKiK issued a conditional clearance, without first sending a statement of objections to the merger.
The average duration of proceedings which ended with a phase I decision was slightly longer than 33 calendar days (the shortest proceedings lasting 2 days, the longest being 202 days). As for the average time of proceedings ending with a phase II decision, this was slightly longer than 266 calendar days (the shortest proceedings lasting 130 days, the longest being 381 days). Only 8 UOKiK decisions were issued after phase II proceedings, and in 7 cases, phase II was not closed by the end of 2019. The average time to negotiate merger remedies was 76 calendar days (the shortest negotiations lasting 47 days, the longest being 110 days).
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