Books

The newest monograph published in the CARS „Textbooks and Monographs” series written by Prof. Tadeusz Skoczny is devoted to the most important element of the pre-emptive merger control system – the material and formal legal basis for the issue of special clearances. The analysis is cantered on the theoretical concept of special clearances for the issue of which it is not sufficient to establish that a notified merger is not likely to lead to a significant impediment of competition (as is the case for ordinary clearances) or to clearances that must be issued despite the fact that the notified operation will in fact lead to a significant impediment of competition and thus should be prohibited. The subject of this analysis covers 3 types of special clearances: exceptional clearances issued when a prohibitive decision is inappropriate due to the fact that the expected significant impediment of competition will occur even if the merger is prohibited; extraordinary clearances for anticompetitive mergers that must be allowed to go ahead for public policy reasons other than competition protection; and finally conditional clearances issued in order to avoid a prohibitive decision in situations when the parties modify their operations so as to eliminate the expected impediment of competition. The Author proves that special clearances, and in particular conditional clearances should be seen as a preferred option before prohibitive decisions.