Denmark's revised competition law, effective today, grants the Competition and Consumer Authority new powers and establishes new penalty calculation principles for competition law violations.

The amendment allows the authority to conduct market investigations into behaviors or structures in one or more industries, enabling the Competition Council to mandate relevant companies to change their conduct if competition is significantly weakened to the detriment of consumers or other businesses.

Additionally, the authority can now require certain potentially anti-competitive mergers to be notified, even if they fall below the usual thresholds for competition authority approval.

The revision also introduces new penalty calculation principles to ensure fines better reflect the economic impact of a violation, aligning with the methods used by the EU Commission and several other EU countries.

The Competition and Consumer Authority has drafted guidance on the new merger rules, outlining conditions, deadlines, and the process for notifying mergers falling below the regular turnover thresholds, currently open for stakeholder feedback until August 30, 2024.