Too Many Gatekeepers? The Costs of Globalized Merger Control

Over the last twenty years, an ever-growing number of jurisdictions have adopted merger control regimes. Although the global proliferation of merger control regimes has yielded some benefits, such as addressing competitive concerns in mergers with localized anticompetitive effects, it has also imposed substantial costs. These costs include, among others, at times significant delay in the ability to close a transaction and achieve anticipated efficiencies, the risk that an agency will improperly block a transaction or impose inefficient remedies, and the possibility that pro-competitive transactions will not be pursued in light of these concerns.