Judgment of the Court of Justice in Joined Cases C-611/22 P, C-625/22 P

PRESS RELEASE No 127/24 Luxembourg, 3 September 2024 Judgment of the Court in Joined Cases C-611/22 P | Illumina v Commission and C-625/22 P | Grail v Commission and Illumina Illumina-Grail merger: the Court of Justice sets aside the judgment of the General Court and annuls the decisions by which the Commission accepted requests from national competition authorities seeking the examination of the proposed concentration The Commission is not authorised to encourage or accept referrals of proposed concentrations without a European dimension from national competition authorities where those authorities are not competent to examine those proposed concentrations under their own national law On 21 September 2020, Grail LLC, a US company that develops blood tests for the early detection of cancer, and Illumina Inc., a US company specialised in genetic analysis solutions, made public a proposal on the acquisition by Illumina of sole control over Grail. Since the concentration did not have a European dimension in particular given the fact that Grail had no turnover either in the European Union or elsewhere in the world, it was not notified to the Commission. Moreover, it was not notified in the Member States or in the States party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), since it failed to reach the relevant national thresholds. Having received a complaint concerning that concentration, the Commission invited the Member States to submit to it, in...