The competition watchdog has called on the Government to increase the value at which businesses are obliged to inform it of mergers and acquisitions.
It wants the ceiling increased to allow it to focus more on the deals which could have the most meaningful impact on competition across a range of sectors, it said.
For more than five years the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has had to be formally notified of all deals involving businesses if they have combined turnovers of €60 million, and where each of two or more has a turnover of €10 million.
Once notified, the commission is obliged to conduct an investigation after which it can give a deal the green light, reject it or approve it certain subject to conditions based on how the mergers or acquisitions will affect competition in the sector.
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The threshold can only be increased by ministerial order. The CCPC has expressed the hope that Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke will move to do so in the near future in response to inflation.
Climbing prices have boosted turnover in many sectors and taken it above the current limit. That has forced deals that would not ordinarily pose a threat to normal commercial competition on to the regulator’s radar.
Its annual mergers and acquisitions report for 2025, which is published on Monday, points to a 32 per cent increase in merger notifications from 2023 to 2025.
Overall, 90 mergers were notified to it in 2025, up from 82 the year before and 68 in 2023.
The CCPC issued 91 determinations, including 12 in relation to cases carried over from 2024.
A total of 58 determinations were made under its simplified merger notification procedure with the process concluded within an average of 12.5 working days from notification of the merger.
A further five more complex “phase two″ investigations were concluded in 2025 with two transactions cleared unconditionally and three passed with remedies.
Eight media mergers were notified to the CCPC in 2025, compared to three in 2024. Six were cleared unconditionally and two have been carried over to this year.
Formal commitments from merging parties were secured to address competition concerns arising from mergers in the telecommunications, fuel retail, hospitality, waste management and wholesale grocery supply sectors.
The CCPC said the commitments had been designed “to ensure that the mergers do not result in significantly reduced competition”.
The commitments made included divestments of assets and customer contracts, certain restrictions regarding future acquisitions, undertakings regarding the future management and operation of businesses and safeguards to prevent anti-competitive information sharing, the commission said.
Úna Butler of the CCPC said the watchdog’s goal was to ensure that “competition is protected to the benefit of consumers” and she stressed the “need to ensure efficiency”.
Ms Butler expressed hope the “financial thresholds for mandatory notification of mergers in Ireland [are] increased, so that we can focus resources on transactions which are more likely to raise competition issues”.
She said thresholds had last been updated in 2019.
“In light of considerations such as inflation during the intervening time period, the introduction of new merger call-in powers and the Government’s commitment to reduce regulatory burden on businesses, the CCPC feels now is the time to reconsider the merger thresholds,” Ms Butler said.
