EU regulators can examine Illumina, Grail deal, EU court says

EU antitrust regulators can scrutinise U.S. life sciences company Illumina's $8 billion cash-and-stock takeover of Grail following a request from France and other EU countries, Europe's second-top court said on Wednesday.

EU antitrust regulators can scrutinise U.S. life sciences company Illumina's $8 billion cash-and-stock takeover of Grail following a request from France and other EU countries, Europe's second-top court said on Wednesday. The case is important for EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager who wants to expand the European Commission's power to examine big companies' acquisitions of start-ups aimed at shutting down nascent rivals, particularly in tech and pharma deals.

"The Commission has the competence to examine that concentration which did not have a European dimension or fall within the scope of the national merger control rules of member states of the European Union or states party to the agreement on the European Economic Area," the General Court said. The case is T-227/21 Illumina v Commission.