EU Eases Merger Rules to Compete With US and Chinese Giants

The La Defense business district in Paris.

Photographer: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg

The European Union announced plans to revamp its merger rules, lifting some of the barriers to creating big local firms capable of competing with US and Chinese giants.

In its first major overhaul to M&A policy in two decades, the bloc’s executive arm said “the global geopolitical and trade context has changed” and “industrial scale and global competitiveness have become increasingly important.”