ABSTRACT
The risks of buying into anti-competitive behaviour are real and potentially very expensive. Therefore, as well as dealing with merger control filings, there may be other anti-trust issues which need investigating prior to completion. Within the EU, terminations or threats to terminate dealers because of their pricing or parallel importing or exporting practices, may give rise to substantial anti-trust exposure. In many jurisdictions, agreements with dealers to maintain their retail prices are a serious anti-trust infringement. In the EU, preventing customers from exporting the supplier's products to another EU member country is generally prohibited. As well as merger control filings, anti-trust due diligence should be concerned with the possibility of buying into anti-competitive behavior. Pre- or post-merger filings are mandatory in many jurisdictions. Finally, the due diligence process should also seek to identify contracts that may be unenforceable because of anti-trust law.
