23rd March 2026
Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke TD, has launched a Public Consultation on a proposal to raise the thresholds at which mergers and acquisitions must be notified to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).
Mergers or acquisitions 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 whether it may have an adverse effect on competition in the sector or 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:
“I am happy to open this public consultation in relation to the financial thresholds at which mergers and acquisitions must be notified to the CCPC. Raising the merger threshold allows the CCPC to focus its resources on high-value mergers which are more likely to have a detrimental effect on competition.”
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.
The consultation is now open and will close on 1st May 2026.
ENDS
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.
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