With company mergers an ever-present feature of daily business life in Europe and the wider world, it is essential that practitioners' legal, corporate and financial become familiar not only with the regulatory law governing merger activity but also with the growing body of case law embodied in the decisions of the European Commission. EC Merger Decisions Digest is the resource that all business people and their advisers will use for this knowledge and information. There is no better tool for rapid and efficient analysis of prospective mergers.

Written by two outstanding practitioners specialising in EU competition law and EU regulatory matters, the Digest is a regularly updated looseleaf that provides not only every decision in concise summary/analysis format of the European Comission under the EC Merger Regulation, but a clear and easy-to-read presentation of the economic principles underlying the market definitions upheld by the Commission. It includes such useful features as the following:

• standardised summaries of every decision of the European Commission under the EC Merger Regulation, grouped together in 29 chapters according to the main economic sector concerned;
• an easy-to-read, very brief and straightforward summary of the key procedural and substantive points of each decision;
• an interest rating for each case from least interesting to most interesting;
• an invaluable summary of product and geographic market definitions upheld and left open by the Commission by product sector;
• a straightforward summary of the basic economic principles underlying how markets are defined; and
• a user guide to obtain maximum and speediest benefit from the work.

The text is in English, even if the language of the original decision is not.

Practitioners and advisers from the diverse sectors of corporate and competition law, investment banking or private equity will quickly find information relating to the product and geographic market definitions upheld by the Commission, and readily understand the principles underlying the Commission´s findings. Users will rapidly find the most important decisions in each sector, obtain the key facts, and identify the reasons underlying each decision. Each summary contains full reference citations to the original text of the decision.

With the Digest, practitioners and business people can be confident of uncovering every potential pitfall and considered every advantage possible in the circumstances of any deal, right up to the last minute of the process. With its regular updates, economic sector focus, and uncompromising practical orientation toward M&A practice, EC Merger Decisions Digest is the only product of its kind in any format. It would be hard to name an item in a European company law library that will get more use, day in and day out, for years to come.

General Section
Table of Contents.
Foreword
How to Use this Guide
Index of Decisions
Jurisdictional Rules

1. Chemicals
2. Construction
3. Defence
4. Education
5. Energy
6. Farming and Land Management
7. Financial Services
8. Food, Beverage and Tobacco
9. Hotels and Leisure
10. Industrial Goods
11. Insurance
12. Intermediary Goods
13. Internet
14. IT and Telecoms Hardware/Software
15. Media and Printing
16. Minerals and Metals
17. Packaging
18. Pharmaceutical Products
19. Professional and Health Services
20. Post and Telecoms
21. Property
22. Retail Manufacturing
23. Textiles and Leather
24. Transport Manufacture
25. Transport Services
26. Waste Management
27. Water
28. Wholesale and Retail Trade
29. Wood and Wood Products