Free competition is regulated in Greece by the provisions of Law 703/1977 on the control of monopolies and oligopolies and the protection of free competition, as amended and currently in force (‘Law 703/77’). Initially, Law 703/77 did not contain specific merger control rules and Article 4 of the law, as applicable at the time, merely stated that these transactions were not considered to fall within the ambit of the provisions on restrictive trade practices and abuse of dominance (Articles 1 and 2 of Law 703/77 which are, in essence, a reiteration of Articles 101 and 102 – former Articles 81 and 82 – of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), respectively).

In the beginning of the 1990s, with the development of EU merger control rules, detailed provisions on concentrations were introduced into Law 703/77 by virtue of Law 1934/1991. These were subsequently amended on a number of occasions to take into account the evolution of market trends and conditions.

Currently, Law 703/77 provides for the pre-merger notification of concentrations which meet the statutory turnover requirements set by the law (Article 4b) and establishes the procedure for the review of these transactions by the Greek Competition Commission (GCC) as well as by the competent ministers or appellate administrative courts, as the case may be.