The past decade has seen a revolution in the role of economics in merger cases.

Economic analysis has taken centre stage in merger control following landmark Court judgments on merger appeals, the creation of the Chief Economist role, the issuing of DG Comp's Guidelines on the assessment of horizontal mergers as well as Draft Guidelines on non-horizontal mergers. Merger assessment now fully embraces modern economic thinking on the behaviour of oligopolistic markets, and theories of harm are closely tested against the available data and documents.

Economic advice is commonly sought at the planning stage of a transaction, to identify potential competition problems at the earliest opportunity. We help define the relevant markets, anticipate the likely theories of harm that will be raised by competition authorities, identify the most appropriate model of competition for simulating the effect of the merger, select the relevant empirical tests to predict the likely impact of the merger on market power, and consider the potential implications of different remedies packages.

We have a strong reputation for helping clients gain approval in the first phase of an investigation, thus avoiding full-scale inquiries. At the same time, CRA's economists have worked on some of the most important and controversial cases of recent years, involving the assessment of mergers in oligopolistic markets, unilateral effects, vertical transactions and theories of bundling and conglomerate effects. We have advised parties, both in the administrative proceedings and in appeal to the Court of First Instance (CFI), in landmark cases that have changed the course of competition policy enforcement in Europe, such as Airtours, Tetra Laval/Sidel and GE/Honeywell.

Major European cases in which we have advised include:

• Dunfermline Press Ltd / Trinity Mirror plc (2008)
• Oracle / BEA Systems (2008)
• Randstad / Vedior (2008)
• Home Retail Group plc / Focus (DIY) (2008)
• Seawell / Noble UK (2008)
• Saint-Gobain / Maxit (2007)
• Thomson / Reuters (2007)
• INEOS / Kerling (2007)
• Ryanair / Aer Lingus (2007)
• TomTom / TeleAtlas (2007)
• Kraft / Danone (2007)
• SCA / Procter & Gamble (2007)
• KarstadtQuelle / My Travel (2007)
• CVC / Ferd / Elopak / SIG (2007)
• Owens Corning / Vetrotex (2007)
• Ineos / BP Dormagen (2006)
• Inco / Falconbridge (2006)
• Alcatel / Lucent (2006)
• Linde / BOC (2006)
• Sea-Invest / EMO-EKOM (2006)
• GDF/Suez (2006)
• T-Mobile / Tele.ring (2006)
• Adidas / Reebok (2006)
• Telefonica / O2 (2006)
• E.ON / MOL (2005)
• St Gobain / BPB (2005)
• Procter & Gamble / Gillette (2005)
• ENI / EDP / GDP (2005 - in the Appeal before the CFI)
• Oracle / Peoplesoft (2003/4)
• Newscorp / Telepiu (2003)
• Pfizer / Pharmacia (2003)
• HP / Compaq (2002)
• Tetra Laval / Sidel (2001 and subsequently in the Appeal before the CFI)
• GE / Honeywell (2001 and subsequently in the Appeal before the CFI)
• Volvo / Scania (2000)
• MCIWorldCom / Sprint (2000)
• Airtours / First Choice (1999 and subsequently in the Appeal before the CFI)

We have extensive experience in mergers before national competition authorities, including the German, French, Austrian, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese authorities, as well as the OFT and Competition Commission in the UK. CRA's recent UK experience includes Kemira GrowHow / Terra Industries (2007), Pan Fish / Marine Harvest (2006), Stericycle International / Sterile Technologies Group (2006) and Boots / AllianceChem (2006).

In addition we have been involved in many high-profile cases before the South African competition authorities, including Netcare / Community Hospital Group (2007), Telkom / BCX (2006-7), Sasol / Engen (2005), Harmony / Gold Fields (2005) and many others.



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