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International Bar Association

IBA

The International Bar Association (IBA), established in 1947, is the world’s leading organisation of international legal practitioners, bar associations law societies.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Review of the Merger Guidelines

3 Sept 2025

The Mergers Working Group of the Antitrust Section of the International Bar Association (Working Group) welcomes the European Commissions effort to refresh the EU Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines (the 'EU merger guidelines') where they appear to be patently out-of-date. The Working Group advocates for combining the Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines into one document for clarity and ease of reference. While some updates are warranted, particularly for accuracy regarding the SIEC test, the Working Group cautions against a radical overhaul. Instead, a modest refresh and minor update are considered sufficient, avoiding unnecessary complexity or excessive length. The EU merger guidelines should remain concise, ideally 35-40 pages, and maintain a user-friendly format. In updating the EU merger guidelines, the Working Group stresses the importance of grounding them in recent decisional practice and the evolving case law of the ECJ to ensure they remain relevant and legally robust. Substantively, the Working Group notes that merger cases are highly fact-specific, and therefore sees limited value in including numerous case studies, as in other Commissions guidelines. Instead, it is recommended to elaborate the analytical framework and methodologies for assessing competitive effects, thresholds for intervention, and the role of market definitions and efficiencies. For example, the EU merger guidelines could clarify the concept of elimination of an important competitive force in light of the ECJs CK Telecoms judgment, which considers whether a merging partys competitive impact is greater than what its market share along would suggest. Drawing on practices from the U.S. Merger Guidelines, the Group suggests providing more explicit structures and types of evidence that may be relied upon in merger assessment. Furthermore, the Working Group advocates for a refreshed approach to efficiencies and to the failing firm/division defence, in order to allow these to be genuinely available to companies. Finally, the Working Group considers that it would be inappropriate and counterproductive to introduce structural presumptions of harm into the EU merger control framework.
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Meeting with Inge Bernaerts (Director Competition) and

7 Apr 2025 · Forthcoming activities of the IBA

Meeting with Anna Fotyga (Member of the European Parliament) and Ukrainian Bar Association

28 Nov 2023 · Justice and Accountability for Russia's War Against Ukraine

Meeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and

8 Feb 2023 · Support to displaced persons from Ukraine, including support through European Cohesion funding

Response to Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation (BEFIT)

25 Jan 2023

Re: European Commission - Call for evidence for an impact assessment on Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation (BEFIT) Dear Sir / Madam, The International Bar Association ("IBA") would like to take this opportunity to provide comments as part of the Call for evidence for an impact assessment ("Call for evidence") on Business in Europe: Framework for Income Taxation ("BEFIT"), open for feedback from 13 October 2022 to 26 January 2023. The IBA, the global voice of the legal profession, includes over [80,000] of the worlds top lawyers and [some 190] Bar Associations and Law Societies worldwide. We are submitting our comments on behalf of the IBA Taxes Committee which has [over 1,000] members from around the world. This committee formed a Working Group to respond to the Call for evidence. The comments made in this report are the personal opinions of the Working Group participants and should not be taken as representing the views of their firms, employers or any other person or body of persons apart from the IBA Taxes Committee of which they are members. The comments are enclosed with this letter. Sincerely yours, Wiebe Dijkstra Daniel Luchsinger International Organisation Liaison Officer International Organisation Liaison Officer IBA Taxes Committee IBA Taxes Committee Netherlands U.S.A. Tax Partner Tax Partner De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek N.V. Covington & Burling LLP
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Response to Revision of EU legislation on hazard classification, labelling and packaging of chemicals

4 May 2021

Testing new submission process - please disregard.
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Meeting with Věra Jourová (Vice-President)

10 Nov 2020 · Rule of Law

Response to Gender equality in the EU

13 Feb 2020

See attached feedback document.
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Meeting with Frans Timmermans (First Vice-President)

12 Jul 2018 · Rule of Law

Meeting with Ditte Juul Jørgensen (Cabinet of Commissioner Margrethe Vestager), Friedrich Wenzel Bulst (Cabinet of Commissioner Margrethe Vestager)

7 Jan 2015 · An introduction to IBA