CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Marios Pelides and Dominique Pelides, Georgiades & Pelides
4.4 Competition Concerns The CPC examines a variety of competition con - cerns in reaching a decision. These include: • the structure of the affected markets and oth - er markets that may be significantly impacted by the concentration; • potential competition posed by other enter - prises; • the market share of the participants and their connected parties; • alternative sources of supply for the relevant products and/or services; • supply and demand trends; • barriers to entry; • the interests of final and intermediate con - sumers; and • the contribution to technical and economic progress. Additional concerns are examined with respect to joint ventures in 4.7 Special Consideration for Joint Ventures . 4.5 Economic Efficiencies As noted in 4.4 Competition Concerns , the CPC will take into account certain types of economic efficiencies, insofar as they relate to the interests of consumers or contribute to technical and/or economic progress. 4.6 Non-Competition Issues The CPC does not generally tend to take any non-competition considerations into account when reaching a decision, and the CPC is not expressly empowered to do so by the Law. How - ever, as noted in 1.3 Enforcement Authorities , the Minister may declare that a concentration is “of major importance” (and therefore notifiable to the CPC) despite the fact that the transac - tion may not meet the jurisdictional thresholds described in 2.5 Jurisdictional Thresholds . The
Minister may do so where they consider that a concentration should be regarded as being of major importance on the basis of its expected impact on public safety, on pluralism of the media and/or on the principles of sound admin - istration. There are currently no general rules restricting foreign direct investment into Cyprus, although draft legislation introducing a foreign direct investment regime is currently before the Cypriot parliament (see 9. Foreign Direct Investment/ Subsidies Review ). There are specific rules gov - erning investment into (i) certain specific sec - tors (eg, banks, insurance companies) and/or (ii) by specific methods (eg, public offers; see 1.2 Legislation Relating to Particular Sectors ). These rules operate entirely independently of the merger control rules, and consequently, both sets of applicable rules should be considered when assessing the steps to implementation of a transaction. 4.7 Special Consideration for Joint Ventures Where a concentration involves the creation of a joint venture, the CPC will also examine wheth - er the joint venture will result in co-ordination between the joint venture parents (or whether such coordination is in fact the objective of the creation of the joint venture). If such co-ordina - tion exists or will exist, the CPC will consider whether the co-ordination is compatible with, or will interfere with, the ordinary functioning of competition on the market. The CPC will in particular consider whether the joint venture parents will continue to undertake significant activities in the same or adjacent mar - kets as the joint venture enterprise, and whether any co-ordination resulting from the creation of the joint venture will provide the parents with the
126 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook