The European Commission received more than 200 stakeholder comments during the consultation on the merger guidelines review.

Omissions

• The precise figure is 243 responses, not merely 'more than 200'; the speaker used a rounded lower bound.
• The 243 figure aggregates the responses to the public consultation AND the responses to the Call for Evidence, so it is not a count of a single consultation stream.
• The data relates to the 2025 consultation phase of the merger guidelines review (8 May – 3 September 2025), summarised by the Commission on 29 October 2025; the Commission opened a further public consultation on the draft text of the new Merger Guidelines on 30 April 2026, and the number of responses to that later consultation could not be established within the search budget.
• The sources confirming the 243 figure were published in October 2025 and 2026, i.e. available to the speaker before the session date of 20 October 2026.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropean Commission – DG Competition, 'Review of the Merger Guidelines – Overview of main trends from public consultation'"The Public Consultation and responses to the Call for Evidence yielded a high number of 243 responses in total, which is unprecedented for an EU merger..."
• PrimaryEuropean Commission – DG Competition, 'Review of the Merger Guidelines' (consultation page)"Between 8 May 2025 and 3 September 2025, the Commission carried out a General..." and "On 30 April 2026, DG COMP published the draft text of the new Merger Guidelines for consultation. The public consultation on the draft text of the new Merger Guidelines has now closed."
• SecondaryCleary Antitrust Watch, 'EU Merger Guidelines Consultation – Main Response Trends'"On October 29, the Commission summarized the main trends of the 243 responses it received."