Press Release 34/2022
December 27, 2022

The AdC has published a Best Practices Guide on Gun-jumping, i.e., the early implementation of a merger subject to mandatory prior notification, in violation of national and international competition rules.
The guide now published was subject to public consultation from November 8 to December 7, 2022.
To safeguard competition in the market, mergers that meet the criteria set out in the Competition Law must be notified to the AdC prior to their implementation. When the operation is carried out before being notified or before the AdC issues a non-opposition decision, this constitutes gun-jumping.
The expression has its origin in sports - it corresponds to the start of a race before the starting gun. Like other practices that cause obstruction to competition in the markets, it is subject to be punished with a fine of up to 10% of the turnover of the companies involved.   
In this regard, it should be recalled that in the last six years (between 2017 and 2022), the AdC has sanctioned six cases of gun-jumping, which led to the application of a total amount of fines exceeding three million euros. 
This guide is of interest to companies intending to implement mergers, as well as to the legal representatives that advise them and intends to contribute to an easy understanding of the practice, in order to avoid it and contribute to the generalization of a competition culture.