10th June 2026
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke has signed a Ministerial Order to raise the thresholds at which mergers and acquisitions must be notified to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).
Undertakings involved in a merger or acquisition are required by the Competition Act 2002 (‘the 2002 Act’) to notify the CCPC if specified financial thresholds are reached in the most recent financial year. The CCPC must then review the merger to assess if allowing the merger to go ahead would have an adverse effect on competition on the sector or the geographical area.
Under section 27(1) of the 2002 Act, the Minister has the power to raise the financial thresholds for mandatory notification of mergers by means of a ministerial order once per year. The thresholds were last raised in 2019.
The Minister said:
“My department and I are committed to reducing administrative burden on business, while ensuring a fair economy for both consumers and industry. Earlier this year I launched a consultation to gather opinions from the public on whether the financial thresholds for which mergers and acquisitions must be notified to the CCPC should be raised. The public response was broadly positive, and I am now raising the merger threshold as I believe this is the correct path to follow."
Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation, Niamh Smyth said:
"By raising the merger threshold, we are reducing the administrative burden on business, eliminating unnecessary notification requirements, and enabling the CCPC to concentrate its resources on mergers that warrant closer scrutiny."
Mergers that have the potential to disrupt the market but do not meet the threshold can be reviewed by the CCPC through its ‘call-in’ power.
Notes to editors
- The Competition Act 2002, as amended, sets out that the CCPC is obligated to review a merger once certain financial thresholds are met. To allow for changing economic trends, the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment has the power in legislation to amend these thresholds once per year.
- The Minister is of the view that raising the economic thresholds would allow the CCPC to focus on mergers that have the potential to have a distortive effect on competition, which are usually higher value mergers. If a merger takes place that has the potential to distort competition but is below the mandatory examination threshold, the CCPC has the power to ‘call-in’ below threshold mergers. This power was given to it in the Competition (Amendment) Act 2022.
- Raising the threshold would account for inflation and also bring Ireland in line with other similar economies in the single market.
- The thresholds were last increased in 2019 and led to a drop in notifications. The number of notifications has risen again since the threshold was last raised.
- Since 2019, under section 18(1) of the Competition Act, 2002, undertakings with an aggregate turnover of not less than €60 million in the State, and where two or more of the undertakings involved have a turnover of not less than €10 million each in the State, were obliged to notify the CCPC with full details prior to the merger taking place. The Minister is raising these amounts to €100 million and €15 million respectively from 1 July 2026.
- CCPC will issue guidance to industry on what that means for mergers that have been or are due to be notified.
- The department ran a consultation on the matter from 23 March 2026 to 1 May 2026. All submissions received favoured raising the merger thresholds from their current levels.
- The department will publish a report on the public consultation, including all submissions received, in the coming weeks.
ENDS
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