The paper deals with the aspects of legal regulation of merger control, within the framework of the European Union, the USA and Georgian legislation and the role of the competition executive bodies in protecting the principles of competition, since the goal of merger control is to maintain a healthy competitive environment in the relevant markets, protect consumers and prevent monopolistic actions or other types of anti-competitive behavior.
The study devotes significant attention to the analysis of both generally recognized and defined by Georgian legislation - horizontal and non-horizontal (vertical merger and conglomerate) concentrations, as well as to the analysis of such types of mergers common in world practice as market development mergers; product expansion mergers and homogeneous mergers.
However, it is also a fact that economic agents participating in a merger, no matter how well-intentioned they may be, may in some cases have a negative impact on a particular concentration and be/become inappropriate/incompatible with the competitive environment in the relevant market, which is obviously a subject of assessment by the relevant regulatory authorities.
Steaming from the above, the paper discusses both the positive and negative aspects of each concentration/merger, concluding that the provisions of the competition law currently in force in Georgia - in the direction of concentration control - are fully consistent with similar norms of advanced international practice countries, primarily the European Union.
In addition, its enforcement practice, especially after the legislative amendments implemented in 2020, namely, concentrations in the regulated sectors also got the subject to state control, fully responds to the challenges facing the country in this regard.
Thus, the current competition law and the established practice of concentration control in Georgia proves that the competitive environment in the relevant markets is maximally protected in the country and the possibility of implementing concentrations incompatible with the competitive environment is excluded (reduced to a minimum).
