In 2019, the Competition Authority proposed that small companies, whose annual sales turnover does not exceed NIS 20 million, would not have to obtain the commissioner’s consent to the merger. In the meantime, two years have passed, and governments and the Knesset are not really functioning, and the issue is not before. Today, the Knesset’s Economics Committee approved the issue, so that the minimum threshold for reporting to the Authority will increase to NIS 20 million, instead of the current NIS 10 million.
After approval, the approval of the merging commissioner will be required only if the minimum annual turnover of each of the two merging companies exceeds NIS 20 million and the existing merger notification forms (long and abbreviated notification) will be replaced by a single form.
There is currently an obligation to report a merger and obtain the approval of the merger commissioner when the aggregate sales turnover of the parties to the merger exceeds NIS 360 million and the sales turnover of at least two of the merging companies exceeds NIS 10 million, each – and now it will increase to NIS 20 million.
The Authority clarifies that the change does not exempt the obligation of monopoly owners to file merger notices even if the parties do not meet the minimum reporting threshold.
According to the Authority: “Almost 20 years have passed since the publication of the existing forms and after the accumulated experience the Authority shows that the information transmitted today, and especially in the abbreviated form, does not provide all the information needed to examine the mergers.” “Third also in mergers that did not raise concerns.”
When will the amendment take effect?
After two months from the publication of the new regulations in Reshumot, the merging companies will be required to submit the new form and the previous forms will no longer be accepted.
Comments on the article(0):
Your response has been received and will be published subject to system policies.
Thanks.
For a new response
Your response was not sent due to a communication problem, please try again.
Return to comment
.