Standardization of M&A Transactions in the USA and Europe: Empirical Research and Conceptual Analysis

Abstract

The degree of standardization of the practice of M&A transactions in Europe and the United States, which is largely accepted in Russia, allows us to raise the question of the formation of lex mercatoria in the field of corporate transactions. The experience of forming and studying the standards for concluding transactions considered in the paper reflects the technological capabilities of information processing over the past 20 years. This experience is the basis for the next stage of the development of legal regulation related to the use of machine learning technologies and the transformation of the regulation of public relations. From a practical point of view, when concluding complex transactions that are yet to be unified by platform technologies, the relevance of the issue is undoubtedly relevant: what would be the usual (average, compromise, most reasonable) solution for a particular situation? The paper provides an in-depth and detailed analysis of empirical research data, in particular, the 2019 report “On the main terms of European transactions with respect to private companies” published by the American Bar Association. The author concludes that, despite some statistical limitations of the sampled information, the periodic nature, uniform methodology and international coverage of the report data allow us to track the dynamics of the use of a particular condition in time and space, as well as the level of standardization and unification of approaches to regulating M&A conditions. The author identifies the conditions that are well-established in practice, in particular, the conditions on the applicable law, the mechanism of price adjustment, risk liability insurance in connection with assurances about the circumstances, approaches to determining losses and limiting the seller’s liability. The paper also analyzes the trends of consolidating positions on controversial issues, including those related to a significant change in circumstances (MAE) and the inclusion in its scope of circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the application of the knowledge criterion, the dispute settlement procedure, etc.