Regional Merger Review in Spain

The decentralization of competition law enforcement in Spain has led to the creation by Autonomous Communities of agencies responsible for this task. Today most of antitrust disciplinary proceedings are heard before them, they also play other advisory and advocacy roles. However, in the area merger review and control, the law only provides for a consultative intervention of regional authorities in those operations that have a significant impact in the regional context. The constitutionality challenge against the Spanish Competition Act by the government of the Canary Islands (2008) for limiting regional powers, and the Constitutional Court Judgment 31/2010 (concerning the autonomy Statute for Catalonia), allow considering that in future there will be a regional review of mergers and acquisitions. As part of the unique experience of decentralization of competition in Spain, this paper examines this issue and the implications it could have a potential regional power in merger control