As many dealmakers doing business in Europe have realized, German and Austrian merger filing requirements are sometimes a bit tricky, and in some respects different from the rules in place at EU level and in other EU member states. For instance, it may be that a transaction has to be notified in one of these two countries although the transaction leads to a mere minority shareholding or one of the undertakings involved achieved (almost) no local turnover.

In this context, it should be noted that companies violating a filing obligation are subject to appreciable fines and run the risk that the closing acts of the transaction are null and void under civil law. Particularly after the recent Spar decision of the Austrian Supreme Cartel Court, which led to a tenfold increase of the fine originally imposed by the Austrian Cartel Court, it can be expected that the amount of fines for competition law breaches will generally increase in Austria. Against this background, it is worth noting some existing peculiarities and some new developments regarding the filing thresholds:

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