In her PhD thesis Giulia Aurélie Sonderegger analyses killer acquisitions which in short
are acquisitions that aim to pre-empt potential future competition at an early stage. While
this phenomenon was originally discovered in pharmaceutical markets this thesis exclusively
discusses killer acquisitions in the context of digital markets thereby primarily focusing on
the current European Merger Control Regulation (EUMR). The main research question is whether
the EUMR is appropriate to tackle killer acquisitions occurring in digital markets and if not
in what ways it needs to be amended to better address the challenges in the future. To tackle
this question the author assesses both the economic and legal effects of killer acquisitions
on merger control in digital markets and based on her findings suggests amendments to the
current European merger control regime. For a more comprehensive analysis this thesis also
includes an assessment of the recently enacted Digital Markets Act (DMA) to ascertain whether
this regulation may serve as an additional tool to remedy such transactions.
