Citing Facebook parent Meta’s purchase of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, Gina Cass-Gottlieb said it was important the ACCC was able to think broadly about merger effects.
Treasury’s proposal to force companies to prove that planned mergers won’t harm competition is “an unwarranted interference in commercial activity”, legal experts warn.
The proposals take the flexibility out of the current system to ensure that no deal over a certain threshold (still to be determined, but likely based on revenue) escapes the regulator’s net.