The last two years have been a time of challenge and gradual change in EC merger control. First and foremost, the economic and financial downturn has left a deep but uneven mark. The number of merger filings dropped a little in 2008, and then significantly in 2009. The abandoned BHP Billiton/Rio Tinto transaction is a good illustration of how the crisis has affected merger activity. Not all industries have been equally affected, however. For example, the energy business has resisted well. The crisis has not prevented a wave of consolidation in certain sectors (e.g. aviation, energy, and pharmaceuticals), and has in fact been the cause of some mergers. The global financial and economic turmoil has also caused some EU Member States to take a more than usually active role in merger control, as illustrated by the Lloyds/HBOS merger in the United Kingdom (UK). The crisis has presented enforcers with a major challenge, generating intense pressure to clear mergers in record time. This has not, however, affected the substantive analysis. Banking mergers present a good example of the Commission handling cases quickly, taking into account the economic and financial climate, but without applying a lenient approach in its substantive review. Despite the reduced volume of new cases, the last two years have seen some important legal and policy developments in EC merger control. A number of high-tech merger decisions (including Google/DoubleClick, Nokia/Navteq, and TomTom/Tele Atlas) provide the first applications of the Commission’s recent NonHorizontal Merger Guidelines. These cases raised complex and novel issues, requiring extensive market investigation. The latest installment in the longrunning Sony/BMG saga confirms and clarifies the law in the field of collective dominance (nowadays usually referred to as ‘coordinated effects’). The Commission’s policy in respect of remedies has continued to become more rigorous. This is expressed in a new Remedies Notice, and may also be reflected in several remarkably strict decisions in the aviation industry, most notably the prohibition decision in Ryanair/Air Lingus. Overall, the current crisis has not affected the Commission’s remedies policy significantly: divestitures remain the benchmark and behavioural remedies are viewed with scepticism. Several recent merger decisions in the aviation and pharmaceutical industries (e.g. Iberia/Vueling/Clickair and Pfizer/ Wyeth) illustrate how the Commission’s policy on remedies has evolved. On the procedural front, the Commission recently imposed the highest fine to date for ‘gun jumping’, i.e. infringement of the standstill obligation provided for in the EC Merger Regulation (the ECMR or the Regulation) (Electrabel/Compagnie Nationale du Rhone). The Community Courts have issued several landmark judgments over the last year, including two (Schneider and MyTravel) relating to actions for