EU COMPETITION RULES AND THE BAYER ACQUISITION OF MONSANTO

This study aims at exploring EU rules on Mergers & Acquisitions, and their application within the agrochemical industry in the recent case of the giant acquisition of Monsanto company by Bayer, which also involved a relevant divestment to BASF. After presenting the Bayer and Monsanto companies and their agrochemical business areas, with particular attention to the debated safety issues connected with Monsanto's glyphosate herbicide “Roundup”, the thesis highlights the main aspects of the EU “Merger Regulation”, which applies to the analysed case. The study then proceeds to discussing the approach of the EU Commission, in its role of EU Antitrust Authority. Bayer and Monsanto's application to the EU Commission for the proposed acquisition is described, and the Commission's subsequent in-depth investigation, its concerns and the according commitments taken up by Bayer are studied. Since the EU Commission finally decided to clear the huge acquisition on condition of a relevant divestment of parts of Bayer's Crop Science business, Bayer's commitment to divest to BASF and the consequent application for acquisition by BASF are also discussed, as well as the impact of this rather unexpected and very large acquisition on BASF's agrochemical business activities. The conclusions draw the reader's attention to the significance of this complex double acquisition among three giants of the EU and global agrochemical industry, and the relevance of the EU Commission's approach to the scope of maintaining an acceptable level of competition on the EU market, to the final benefit of customers and consumers.