Expanding EU Merger Control to Non-Controlling Minority Shareholdings: A Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut?

In July 2014, the European Commission issued a White Paper and a Staff Working Document confirming its intention to propose expanding the jurisdictional scope of the EU Merger Regulation to capture the acquisition of non-controlling minority shareholdings. This article considers two questions: (1) has the case for change been persuasively made; and (2) are the modalities of the Commission’s proposal appropriate?