Continued Success before the CJEU: Linklaters Defends All Merger Control Clearances of the E.ON–RWE Transaction

Acting for E.ON, Linklaters has now also successfully defended the European Commission’s merger control clearance before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the second set of proceedings. With the latest judgment concerning the acquisition of the majority shareholding in innogy, all actions against the two Commission clearances of the E.ON–RWE transaction have been finally dismissed – a complete success in both proceedings and at all instances (C-171/24 – C-179/24).

In 2018, E.ON and RWE agreed on a far-reaching asset swap. The European Commission cleared the transactions in two separate proceedings: the first concerned the acquisition of E.ON’s renewables business by RWE, and the second the acquisition of the majority shareholding in innogy by E.ON from RWE. Numerous German energy companies, most of them municipal utilities, challenged the Commission’s two clearance decisions. In December 2023, the General Court of the European Union dismissed all eleven actions in the second set of proceedings. Nine of the claimants subsequently lodged appeals before the CJEU.

Having  already confirmed the clearance of the first concentration in June 2025, the CJEU has now also dismissed all appeals brought by the claimants in the second case, thereby confirming the clearance of the acquisition of the majority shareholding in innogy by E.ON from RWE. With this judgment, all actions brought against the Commission clearances have become final and have been fully rejected.

The Linklaters team has successfully advised on the clearance proceedings since the merger control procedure before the Commission and now also before the CJEU, led by partners Christoph Barth and Dr David-Julien dos Santos Goncalves, together with Dr Alexander Fuchs (associate; all Antitrust & Foreign Investment, Düsseldorf).