17 Oct 2016, 4:13 pm
The Commission will now assess the proposed transaction in its role as chief EU competition authority. The provisional deadline for deciding whether to approve the deal or open it up to more in-depth scrutiny is 22 November.
The reported $26.2 billion deal between Microsoft and LinkedIn has already been approved by competition authorities in the US, Canada and Brazil.
A Microsoft spokesperson said: "We can confirm we have notified the Microsoft LinkedIn deal to the European Commission. The acquisition has been reviewed and cleared unconditionally in the US, Canada, and Brazil and we remain confident that we will obtain final regulatory approval by the end of 2016."
Notifying major merger plans to the European Commission is a necessary procedural step under EU competition rules. Businesses that fail to notify deals before closing the transaction face substantial fines. In 2014 the Commission fined a Norwegian salmon farmer and processor €20 million for failing to notify its plans to acquire a minority stake in a rival.
Competition law expert Guy Lougher of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "An obligation to pre-notify the European Commission of a proposed merger and obtain its approval before completion generally arises when certain turnover thresholds are met and the acquiring company would obtain 'decisive influence' over another business."