Mergers & Acquisitions Mergers & Acquisitions

Comment: Illumina-Grail’s EU veto sees return of the innovation theory of harm

The EU’s Illumina-Grail merger review has been a procedural rollercoaster, and in today’s prohibition, the European Commission also breaks new ground substantively. 
In particular, the case sees the watchdog returning to its innovation theory of harm, this time in a vertical transaction. While the commission insists it’s protecting actual competition,

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Natalie McNelis

Senior Correspondent


Natalie McNelis covers mergers for MLex in Brussels. Before joining MLex in 2017, she spent 20 years as an international trade and competition lawyer in law firms including Stibbe and WilmerHale. Natalie has a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College, a JD from Harvard Law School and an LLM in EU law from KU Leuven. She is admitted to the bar in New York.

Nicholas Hirst

Chief Correspondent


Nicholas covers EU merger review and antitrust investigations for Mlex in Brussels. He previously wrote about EU affairs for Politico Europe, European Voice and PaRR. After earning an LLM in European law from the College of Europe in Bruges, he spent a year working in the competition practice of a leading competition law firm in Brussels 2009-10. He graduated in modern European languages from Oxford University in 2006.

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