The reform of Ukraine’s competition law is an important step towards integration into the European economic space, contributing to the development of transparent and fair market relations. A key direction of this reform is the improvement of merger control and the harmonization of national norms with EU legislation, particularly Regulation No. 139/2004. This document defines the basic principles and mechanisms for regulating mergers, including a multi-level assessment of transactions, structural commitments, and the evaluation of their impact on markets. The article explores legislative innovations aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of merger control in Ukraine, as well as the theoretical foundations and practical aspects of applying merger regulation. Special attention is given to key aspects of the reform, such as clarifying responsibility for violations of merger rules, setting new thresholds for evaluating transactions, implementing a multi-tier system for analyzing mergers, and strengthening the institutional capacity of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC). These changes are crucial for ensuring a competitive environment and protecting consumer interests. Merger control is one of the main tools for ensuring economic competition, preventing monopolization, and fostering transparency in market relations. Given Ukraine’s integration into the European economic space, harmonizing national legislation with European norms has become especially relevant. EU Regulation No. 139/2004 establishes detailed mechanisms for regulating mergers, including a multi-level transaction assessment, structural commitments, and methods for evaluating their impact on markets. The article analyzes Ukraine’s current legislation on mergers, its compliance with European standards, and the challenges arising from unclear merger evaluation criteria, the lengthy process of reviewing applications, and the insufficient resources of the AMC. Special attention is given to international experiences in merger regulation, considering cases such as Dow/DuPont, Google/Fitbit, AT&T/Time Warner. These examples illustrate various approaches to addressing competitive challenges and demonstrate potential regulatory models that could be applied in Ukraine. Based on this analysis, several innovations for improving Ukrainian legislation are proposed: raising financial thresholds for evaluating transactions, harmonizing analysis criteria with EU norms, using post-merger monitoring, and implementing structural commitments. The study’s results confirm that reforming the merger control system will reduce the level of market monopolization, improve the investment climate, and create equal conditions for all market participants. Harmonizing Ukraine’s competition law with EU norms will not only improve market regulation efficiency but also contribute to Ukraine’s integration into the unified European market space, marking an important step toward stable economic development and the well-being of citizens.
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